Lessons

Lesson Info

Texture, Dimension, Mood, and Moments

In order to develop your own style, one of the things that I think has helped me in this industry with regard to continuing to shoot fifty weddings a year for the past fourteen, fifteen years is my separation with regard to the style of work that I do, the imagery that I produce there is a little bit of ah well, I should say a lot of bit of a difference between hopefully myself in my competition than I do that with the work first we could sit here and we can do a business class we can do a lot of different things we could talk about customer service and and how I handle enquiries but we don't have time for that today today is text up today is talking about light today is talking about how to see like, how to use light the difference between quality and quantity of light and we're going to go right into it but we're going to talk about how to capture that light first on howto uh get it technically and I'll show you first of all what I bring to a wedding a zoo rusty doing him a nikon amb...

assador I am incredibly proud of that honor I believe there are seventeen of us um and jerry guinness and I are the wedding representatives from the united states when I come if you look at all this stuff including yada yada yada that's a pretty big year pretty big ear bucks if you look at these you might say holy crap he brings all of those lenses to wedding yes, I absolutely do and there's reason for it mainly um if you look at this next slide here it matters little how much equipment used matters that we be masters of what we do use and I like to think that I know my gear pretty well the only way you can develop your own style first and foremost this have the technical elements in eight for example, if I have of course, dropping your camera helps too if I have this camera right here and I'm here and I take a picture and I look at on my perfect right that's no good you're with a client, you're in a wedding that's not going to fly, so what I try to do is nail things on the first frame, okay? And that's the goal when people come to my workshop, the mantra and the mission statement for the workshop is to empower photographers with the skills necessary to go after a style of their own and that's what I'm going to try to help you do right now first of all lend selection I bring all those lenses for a reason each and every single one of those has a purpose okay? And it creates the right look, all right? And look at all these things here. I'm going to just put these up because I got a lot of slides. I'm gonna put them all up. Um when you look at this last one over here making focusing instinctive, very crucial, ok, there's, different little focus points within their we're going to talk about that a little bit it's critical that we understand how to focus the camera and if we're using very, very shallow depths of field, we have to pick the right focus point to do so. So we're going to get into that in a second. But this one here making lends an extension of your mind's eye right now I see all of you with my twenty four to seventy I can see right now with my seventy two hundred okay, if I come over here, I put my fourteen on I see this entire studio. So what I try to do is think about which lens is going to be the right for which situation I see in depths of field. If I get real close to you, which I've been asked not to do in studio, they get real close to you and I use my eighty five I can't see the people behind because they're blurred, but if I step back a little bit and use that same land, same aperture value. I will be able to see them because I have increased my distance to you distances relative to death field so on and so forth. So for example, let's, look at this image here this twenty eight one four. This is an environmental portrait. It's. Not meant to be, you know a bridal portrait where it real tight on. We can see the overall scene here. I want you to look at these next images and some of you may be seeing me speak alive. You might have seen these two images. This is a fourteen. I'm very, very close to my subject here, right on top of her. You can see the aircraft carrier behind there and it's kind of distorted there's. A there's. A lot of nasty distortion going on, it's. Not a terrible photograph, but when you look at this next one, the impact that's created is drastically different. So what changed? That's? The question. What change? Any guys? What do you think? Yeah, absolutely. The compression that was created with this other lands and let's go back for one second. If you look here, look here did I move the aircraft carrier, you know, and the background is brought into play it's, similar to sports illustrated you see someone using a six hundred millimeter f or whether to ex extender so that's you know ah twelve hundred millimeter lands from the end zone and you see the quarterback in the middle of field he's about to get crushed by a linebacker behind him is the crowd compressed looks like they're right there if he went up for the fourteen millimeter that crowd looked like them miles away that's what your lens compression does for you so we're going to talk in a little bit about lenses and making women look beautiful and things of that sort but longer lenses flatter people I would never shoot a woman with a twenty four or fifty close up we're going to get into that a little bit so you can see some of these images would know that this is in helsinki, finland I assisted my lovely wife susan on on a wedding there I would never shoot this one twenty four my god no the lines would be terribly distorted if you look at this one it almost looks like a muslin backdrop with a long lens think about going up there with maybe a twenty four millimeter that wouldn't work very well so it will be a completely different distorted look uh eighty five one four the emotion is the picture that's the stuff to the subject here and if you look at the textured headboard I wanted to eliminate that could I have taken this photograph with a twenty four seventy at two eight or f four yes the answer is yes I could have but wouldn't have the same impact no because the area in the background would have been definitely taking away from the emotion itself so I use a lot of one four lenses do we really need to see each and every glass no eighty five one four all right I'll show you some more of these images a little bit I sort of allow this to become a little bit of this signature image but nothing's original I stole it from my friend job you think he's actually speaking here this week he showed a picture of j lo in a bathtub about I don't know eight or nine years ago and I'm looking at I'm like damn that's really cool he was an eighty five one four you can really isolate it's beautiful and I focus on one eyelash we're going to talk about that a little bit so it's okay tio use certain lenses it's okay to use different light but we're going to get into the light for a second but first we have to understand how to expose for it and let's look at these things on these cameras you have all these centers got manual shutter priority opportune priority and of course p for professional okay um just because under professional doesn't mean I'm using manual all the time I want to point that out because these meters and these cameras today are so intricate that when I put it on africa priority and I predict how I'm going to have to competition going to say this in a second how to compensate when I can predict the exposure values opportune priority okay it's very, very simple. You have black curtains behind you if I took your picture right now I have to account for men after priority I have to account for the black that's behind you, the black that you're wearing. What if I took your picture right now and this camera is zero point zero compensation and appetite priority what do you think? What happened to your face just would just take a wild guess. Well, it would be yeah let's get him not to put not to put you on the spot or anything. Just what it's from exposure standpoint, your face would be completely white would be completely blown out because these meters air reading all the darkness around you and it's taking an average and what is it trying to do? Is trying to make it eighteen percent gray so it's going to see it all the black your white face is going to be terribly blown out so I have to compensate can we go? We talk about exposure, compensation, a couple little rules the darker the overall scene when compared to the subject the more I have to compensate under if I took your picture right now well, I might do this for you I'm going to say that I wouldn't need to make this minus one and the third stops okay chris there's a lot of darkness going on pretty accurate okay, that was minus one third if I said it to zero point zero your face is completely blown out so when we can predict the scene we can use compensation in our camera okay? And when the overall scene is darker we compensate to the minus side when the overall scene is brighter we compensate to the plus side so when the situation is consistent all use manual because nothing's going to change I don't have to touch my exposures so if the exposure value in here is ah I don't know one twenty, fifty two eight it s o eight hundred or whatever it might pay I'll keep it there and if nothing's changing there's no reason to use africa priority but if there's a situation over here that's different on over here that's different than over here aperture part is the way to go and then you just predict the scene and use your compensation so I get into this very, very heavily in my boot camps I know this is extremely fast but I just wanted to throw these things out there to you but make an instinctive and don't forget to change a compensation back because that could be disastrous hissed a gram some people on the internet you might be like well why not just look at the history damn well have you seen my work history ram's would be useless for me I don't need no stinkin hissed a grams if we look at this image we see these you know yes there are some blown highlights but this is two o'clock in the afternoon in cuernavaca, mexico I liked this image it's got some you know it's kind of striking but it's got problems I don't need to make appropriate image bomb out there two o'clock in the afternoon and one thirty in the afternoon the sun is really direct I might do something like this but someone might say, well, just look at the history rams what do you think this history might look like it's gonna look atrocious if we see this image right here and we see this history graham I guess I'm going to start the dance whatever way see this history, graham right here. You know, my favorite part of the sister graham is the exclamation point exclamation point basically says, dude, you suck, okay, this is supposedly a completely screwed up image but it's made two o'clock in the afternoon. I have to take into account for the problems that going to iraq. We don't live in an eighteen percent great world. If we did, our exposures would be accurate one hundred percent of the time we consider cameras and aperture priority and go around all their don't hey, what if brides were eighteen percent great gowns? Mr johnson? Yes, this clip mounting on yes, I'm working with you this saturday did did did you don't get that eighteen percent great gown that I sent her? And did the bridesmaids wearing eighteen percent grade? Well, they're not that I have some work to do, okay? So achieving accurate exposures quickly honestly is the first step in making a living at this if you can't do that, you can't do much, so let's talk about light when I walk into a room and let's say it's a hotel room or someone's home and I walk in and this might kill be training videos address this a lot when I walk in and I see the mom turning on all the lights in the room and I go and I turned them off and she'll turn the mushy he got on a flight and I'm like, yes, ma'am, I'm fine and I turn them off more light is not better light okay it's not about the quantity it's about the quality of the light and so these you know overhead lights that moms turning on on the lamps that air tungsten or compact fluorescents to me those are hideous just because there's enough white now it s o two billion or whatever I put on there doesn't mean it's good light just because we can take a picture doesn't mean we should in a particular lighting scenario very important quantity versus quality just because there's an abundance of light doesn't mean you should take that picture doesn't mean it's good light bad light for who? Ah very interesting scenario when I walk into a hotel room for example and it's like seattle ok some photographers must love seattle because they like that flat dull grey non textured light I would shoot myself in the freaking head if I lived here okay? Yes oh my god it's like a well and I'm like wow it's great it's flat now there's some video friends of mine that would that would you know they'd be like wow great light, huh don't be like for who there's no texture there's no dimension really have to work hard to make it in this type of environment and if you look around the exposure value outside it's so consistent everywhere that would drive me crazy because there's no texture in that light I want that interesting contract directional light that's different than the abundance of light the quality of light we have to talk about direction and we will and then let it become instinctive and break the rules the old f eight b there the old you know keep the sun to your back and all that kind of stuff just here to tell you that's nonsense it's absolutely baloney don't buy into it so all right let's talk about the wedding day this image right here I'll tell you a story about this image very quickly about a year ago now I've been telling the story for about a year there was a bride and her mom sitting on my sofa in my studio and they said do you have any images from the bellevue and I said yes I absolutely have images from the bellevue er do you have any from the bridal suite? Sure this is the broadest wheat and the bellevue hotel beautiful place classic ballroom kind of setting in philadelphia it's a wonderful place to shoot and I said here's the images of that this is the bridal suite and they're looking at it per second I hear the mom say I really like it but it's kind of dark my first instinct was going to be like you know like like you don't know you know I was offended a little bit but I knew that they were uneducated so I tried I tried to educate them and I went I said, well, I can understand how you might feel that way I heard you tell your daughter that maybe was a little dark, but can you imagine and can you guys imagine or can you guys imagine what I would've done here if I used to speed like what happens to these highlights? What happens to these? You know, the detail in this gown and just the shadow areas compared to the house, everything would be flat now there might be some that say we'll just go in there and bounce of flash balance of flash god that's like a cardinal sin bounce flashes not better flash it's non directional okay, it's just kind of all over the place all you're doing is adding more light to the scene when there's plenty of light here with the cameras that we have today, the centers being so sensitive from a nice so standpoint, there's no reason that we can't go into scenes with quality of light and produce beautiful imagery like this and you know when we have the highlights contrasting with the shadows you can have beautiful, impactful images and this is what creates texture when you have a disparity in exposure value between highlights and shadows that creates texture. What I like to say is shadow is my canvas lite is my paint ok? And when you think about it that's exactly what some of the masters have done not that I am but I love looking at some of those images some of those paintings from back in the day and you see you can see ah highlight because it's up against a shadow always when you look at this image right here the reason you can see the highlight is because it's up again something a little bit darker the other thing I'll say is I like to and there's another sliding here I like to think that my light is my subject when we look at this proto some people might say well he's staging his image is well I wouldn't call this staged kate said to me um I have a letter from stephen should I read it? I said yes absolutely read it and she said, well where I said, well, how about right here in this great light? So I helped set the stage for this moment to take place but I didn't actually stage the moment I had nothing to do with the placement of the bridesmaids nothing to you know I spread a little tear gas in her eyes and all that kind of stuff so for effect you know, photoshopped in a tear but you know in all seriousness this is all her this is all them all I did was placed her in the right spot so is this true photojournalism no, but I'm not a photojournalist anymore I'm waiting to talk I don't need to have that that same journalistic integrity that I brought to the table as a journalist I did this when I worked for the philadelphia inquirer that's grounds for firing frankly, I don't want to manipulate that scene but I can at a wedding and so can you. And so can everybody on the web there's nothing wrong with putting people in the best lighting situations best compositional scenarios just having them do their thing because it's all that light and our moments okay are not ours there their moments when we capture moments we have to understand their their moments not my moment their moment pretty strong genes there huh? The directional life though coming from the window um you know as a little texture here where's the direction of the light that's what I want you to ask yourself with a lot of these yes it's coming from stage right there on that light is just kind of hitting her face could I have stood by the window and shot with the light flat on her face? You know, for the blank stares you guys continue you know yes, I could have but the texture created with the direction of the angle of the light of what is what gives this image the texture so the flat light to me is boring lite okay actually stayed in this suite on my wedding night. This is the four seasons in philadelphia I love this light it's beautiful room and you can see where the direction of the light is here but I also closed this drape right here okay in order to maintain the direction of the light so that the light isn't coming from everywhere. So when you go into a room on a wedding day try to use slivers of light your cameras are sensitive enough I might go in there and I have started I s o sixteen hundred I'll shoot it twenty, five hundred thirty two hundred would ever have to do I'm going in there with one four glass so it's very you know the lenses of very fast but you can go in there which is slippers of light from a particular direction to create texture and we see here this is vanessa who was phenomenal this is on my block. You can see this wedding on my block you can see that little edge of light because it's up against the shadow but the direction of the light is hitting her in a certain way. This is the same room a couple weeks later this is from this year as well and you can see this sliver of light so how did I capture this? I'm an app to priority I said you know what? The overall scene it is kind of darker here and darker here but this might completely balance out the darkness here on the doctor's here the matrix meters trying to balance everything out so I might have went with zero point zero compensation just to try and if I screw it up well there's always the next frame you know usually I can get it at least on the second try but it's quick and direction what if the light was coming straight from me? What if I use the flash on the camera which I would never ok but you can see where the direction of lights coming from so not to beat a dead horse but think about the direction of the light some people like to use light to enhance their subjects but I actually used my subjects to enhance my life I know that sounds kind of backwards but when you look at this image you can't help but think what subject actually is the subject is like I'm not really looking at anything else but the light on her face now she's lovely she's great bride but again it's that edge of light if I had taken this curtain though and I had dragged it back you lose that highlight completely so it's the disparity and exposure value it's juxtaposing these highlights up against shadows that gives you that texture to begin with so you have to think about that before you try to capture this stuff. All right, direction the subject here is really the contrast. This was the one of the first images I did with e eighty five one four g lens which is spectacular in the contrast in this land is wonderful. Uh, let's, look at this for a second. What do you think my exposure compensation might have been for a frame like this? Anybody just blurt it out? Just bulk work? What do you think? Was it plus or minus? Definitely minus because the area around her is a darker than the overall subject itself. The lights falling on her face, this area's darker and I probably used minus two and a third two and two thirds, maybe even three stops under to give me a good exposure there. Ok? It's a lot quicker than putting it manual and trying to figure it out and banging a few frames and looking, banging a few friends and looking back on it after part is going to go faster. It'll get you there a lot quicker let's talk about making the bride look beautiful. Wyndham why was a photojournalist and I shot six thousand assignments with philadelphia inquirer. My job was to get people to stop, look at the image and then read the article okay, my job was to create some impact. My job was to make something from nothing my job was not to pay to make people look good it was to make things and scenes look interesting that's different when you shoot a wedding that was the hardest transformation for me when I went from photojournalist a wedding photographer and people said was it an easy transition well from a technical standpoint sure but otherwise trying to make brides look good trying be a portrait artist trying to do those things no it was not because I was so hands off I didn't think it was my my job a cz a photojournalist to go in and post people and to try to make people look good and to make the bride looked beautiful it took a lot of work aa lot of screwing up and I took a few years I really have to admit that but here's a few keys and I just put them all up there for everybody to see when you look at these right here a little bit of window light all the portrait said I do or would a little bit of window light when I shoot the bride after she gets ready after she's in her gown maybe her veil I use a little bit of window light I'm almost always using one four as my depth of field I used my eighty five one four which is my one of my favorite pieces of glass sneaker eighty five one four g all right I get above her a little bit or slightly above her um and when I'm shooting you'll often see me just kind of do a little compositional dance where it just kind of that's just too slow which is bothered me it just sounds slow so it's a so it's a dance is not I try to change the composition a little bit with each frame okay this is important I put my shoes I put myself in her shoes ok? Not not her jimmies or her manolos or valentino's or I will I literally think about the fact that this might be the first time this woman's everybody photographed by a professional and I understand that and I'm sensitive to that and my whole demeanor compared to the way I am right now which is kind of loud obnoxious east coast you know masculine and just kind of you know I take my man card I throw it away all right and I really try to understand that we have to be very soft and gentle gentlemen you guys it's much easier for a woman to do what we do? We're in a woman's world there's you know, nine bridesmaids two moms a grand mom little girls at a poodle ok, so we have to understand and recognize the fact that we are in that woman's world so my voice changes my demeanor changes everything you know I'm almost androgynous if you will and I understand the fact that you know it's really not about me it's about her making her comfortable and earning her trust the other thing I understand is len selection we're talking technical here I'm not shooting her with a fifty there's a photographer I have no idea I've never met him have to given credit given full focus name steven eastwood I picked this off the internet for those of you that are shooting with a fifty to shoot tight close up portrait of a woman think again if you look at these images which one would you like to be photographed with? How about the twenty four seven you know what? Mike um it's her face is shiny concede a ton of imperfections itjust it doesn't look polished a little distorted maybe a little just a little yeah let's let's what if I put her in the corner of the frame? Maybe that would that would really help huh that would just order even more and you know what it's doing with her forehead is really well it's it's kind of silly so I used my eighty five and the answer would be the hundreds it's compressing things and it's really flattering the face as opposed to a shorter lens and if you notice each one of these frames the image size is the same so the distance between the photographer and the subject had to have changed as well ok so let's, look at some of these, by the way, it's, not the photographer who makes the picture, but it's the person being photographed, it is not about us, it is about that subject, and we have to make it about that subject earned that subjects trust, because it is about trust it's also about some of the technical elements that we have to keep in mind focus when I shoot at one point four, I think very carefully about my focus points on the back of this camera, okay, what I don't want to do if I was going to take your picture and put it on the center area focus point, let's say, I'm focusing on your eyelash and moved the camera to where I want to compose it. So, in other words, I'm not going to focus and recompose at one point four, because the distance between my sensor on my subject will change if I do that, and at one point four, I'm going to throw myself out of focus, so if anybody either on the internet or you folks are having problems focusing with one four lens it's, most likely user don't call the camera, you know can't oh, hey, I'm calling up nps, I'm telling you that eighty five won for a soft you have to choose the right focus point and not moving so for this one I would click it to the left click it up get it through to the upper right area focus point and I would try not to move it instead of focus on recomposed so that's just a little key when you're using one four lenses let's look at some of these and well selective focus I just talked about that using your depth of field to create your uh your creativity enhance creativity, selecting the proper focus point and don't focus and recompose I focused on the lips here okay here I've just focus on the eyelash another eyelash this is just window like guys just a little bit of window light can I just shot this winning just a few weeks ago see how the eighty five one four isolates your subject I did another frame one focused right on her eyes as well but I didn't like that much not nearly so one of the things that I also doing my workshops and people literally come to me for and I could not do these workshops in seattle is working in a harsh light okay? The harshest light that I've seen since I've been in seattle is this studio light right here that's hitting me it's really interesting so you know those of you in seattle you can you know you know you wanna watch this but quit running for the open shade you know who wants to shoot a high noon? Okay, I'm crazy but I'm not stupid high noon is very difficult but it can be done okay can be done. What I try to do is I put that subject between me and the sun ok think about that put your subject between you and the sun if it's two o'clock in the afternoon I want to show you two of four o'clock twelve o'clock I'm going to show you that move around and just your angle a little bit you know again do a little compositional dance if you will here's the key though when you're shooting in this type of white I know that there's people out there that will say wow, this lights terrible it's, terrible light and sometimes it's not great if there's not a cloud in the sky, his son's blasting overhead sometimes it's difficult I happen to like it. I like to use it to create texture and you have to remember that it's not the mona lisa you're not dealing with the perfect situation. Sometimes I'm out there. I'm just looking to survive on a wedding day you know I want to make is many pictures as I can in the shortest briefest period of time in as many different scenarios as I can to give the client variety you can't always have the perfect life you know deal with the problem there's going to be problems that arrive on every wedding day no matter how many have done whether she first or your eight hundred fiftieth you're going to have problems but you know don't tell your problems to people eighty percent don't care twenty percent glad you how let's go back to this one let's look at that image that I put put the wrong frame it deliberately over exposed this I want to thank these people for letting me burn them if you look at this image it was two o'clock in the afternoon it was engagement session it was at villanova university where they went to school we want we want to go to you villanova university that's where you got to school you know what was it the greatest uh scenario for engagement photographs but I have to do what I can to o'clock in the afternoon what I choose that time of day if I had my druthers no I wouldn't I choose five five thirty in the afternoon and it would just be spectacular but anybody can use five thirty in the afternoon to go on do it two o'clock you know so I did a pretty good job right looks good, right? What? No no it looks like but is what it looks like okay, so let's look at the next one I expose properly tonight it's exposed properly right? So good job, right? No simple term around this is straight out of cameras no photo shop here no retouching, nothing turn him around put your subject between you and the sun and you can do this just like that. Ok, now the question might be like how do you expose for this? The answer is properly okay so I know that sounds like a joke but I'm not joking. You have to think about where you need to be do you use appetite priority or do you use manual? Yes it doesn't matter just get there I love two o'clock in the afternoon here's a great friend this is straight out of camera green cast from the grass and all a question asked often and maybe it was even asked on the internet some people will say what happens if you have a dark complected person and you have a light complected person and it's break sunshine and well, sure enough I have this is a wedding in virginia that I did last year and his name is max great guy he's from nigeria she is from iran she's very light skinned woman so we have a very dark skinned man, very light skinned woman and when I walked in I saw max is jacket hanging up I don't like so it's my assistant holy crap that dark black man is going to wear that white jacket and I have to photograph them at one thirty in the afternoon with that white woman what the hell do you do? What I said before is the case how do you expose for it properly? So if you think that this is an issue it's really not that much of an issue if I had a new incident light meter ok and there is the two of them outside if I took that meter and I just went and I looked at it I want that's why I need to be there are many people who think well you need to open up or you know over exposed for the black man well what about the white woman what's going to happen tire she's going to be blown to smithereens well she's very wait well what if she was truly an albino then what? Well, she knows that she is white he knows he is dark why would I want to make him later in her darker? So I just expose properly and that's what I did here again I didn't this is no photo shop straight out of camera you see the green cast there from the grass white jacket so when you're dealing with situations like this just exposed properly there is a proper exposure somewhere two o'clock in the afternoon love lovely texture it's not the mona lisa I've got blown highlights but I'd rather below some highlights then just take the same during pictures and open shade over and over and over when I go to a park on a sunday that I'm off and it's a beautiful sunny day kind of hurts my soul on a little piece of me dies inside when I see a photographer underneath the tree in the open shade when they could be using this beautiful light the sun is the best studio light we have with using yes we lost the veil but I made an interesting photograph I think it's kind of cool you know, just putting the sun behind them put your subject between you and the sun exposed for the pace is properly and then we can create the texture if we look right here we see the highlight juxtaposed against the shadow behind there and that's how we create the texture shooting through some purple flowers get a caller in there and that's two o'clock in the afternoon. This is their first meeting when you're doing like this first look I love doing it in the sunlight rather than the open shade because you know you can do it there's an exposure for it no problem don't be afraid of these situations don't be afraid of this harsh light people from seattle new york city lovely couple first greeting about one thirty two o'clock in the afternoon way have that sometimes we have other issues sometimes we're going to blow out our backgrounds these guys this is atlantic city, new jersey about one thirty in the afternoon you can see the shadows there very that's actually very short shadows compared to the time of day skies completely blown out I just exposed for the faces properly but they wanted a shot they wanted the reservoir dogs shot walking on the boardwalk so I gave it to him give the claim what they want who might say no two o'clock you couldn't do this folks you can go out there and be fearless with your light no problem and then you have four o'clock there are people who say to me sometimes how do you deal with the situation where it just doesn't work? The lights sucks so bad I have a ceremony it's four o'clock it's five o'clock it's this it's that the subjects they're facing the wrong way we can't do anything about it sometimes that happens I can't do things I can't move a ceremony at the last minute look at this image right here so I had to do was do my best to expose for it properly which is exposed for properly ok godless hot spot on the neck I couldn't really go much darker but then I improvised and I went behind them and put my subject between me and that son it could be done no problem subject between you and the sun that's all it is that's the only form knows this is four o'clock so if anyone has questions about this go for folks would love a little bit more detail on exposing properly ok on where to meet her especially when we're talking about yeah thank you for that question absolutely it's a good valid question but I will say that you can get there in different ways uh if the situation is not that consistent, I'll use appetite priority and adjust my exposure compensation and then what I'll do russell just eyeballing it I'm doing a quick it's kind of ah a quick glimpse at my lcd it's not a it's, not a chip it's and then adjust and I'm going to nail it on the second if I look here this is underexposed before I bring the camera to my face okay? I've adjusted and I've nailed the exposure on the second frame so if you're using exposure compensation of using an automatic mode exposure conversation in after priority let's say I'm riding this exposure compensation system on the night consistent it's very, very simple okay and then the next frame after I screw the first one up it's going to be fine, I'm looking at faces I'm looking at exposing for faces whether it's emmanuel or appetite priority I'm looking for the faces so properly is what pleases you and your client how to get there there are many different ways and what I also want to say is none of this is the right way this is my way and I'm sharing it I don't think there's any specific one way to do it people might say well he's an idiot go pound sand I'll say give me a hammer no problem I'm dead wrong whatever you want to say but I get there very fast with my methodology properly looking for the faces russ that's what I'm looking for you all right if any of you have any questions I'm here so this we're still going at four o'clock we're going to kind of slide through this year as the sun gets a little lower in the sky maybe this was like five o'clock the sun begins to soften up and we can begin to use the sun directionally as opposed to having to put our subject between us and the sun at four o'clock or three o'clock in the summertime we don't want those people facing the sun because it's going to be really hot and very unflattering so that's why I put the sun behind them get that texture get that back light uh similar example late in the day here's where it gets a little bit tricky I'll say something that might confuse some people it is easier for me to shoot it two o'clock than four or five o'clock that might be of surprise to some people but the reason is sometimes when that son begins to go down and I want to shoot into it I get a little flare I have to think about blocking that sun somehow when it's high in the sky and I have my my have my seventy two hundred right here but let's pretend this is my seventy two hundred I've got my len shade that's going to pretty much protect me from any flare the sun is high enough I could shoot directly into it without any flare but as that sun gets lower in the sky I'm going to have to deal with that so what do I do well I'm underneath a tree branch which is shadow so I'm in the shadow there in the sun so maybe the shadow from a telephone pole shadow from a tree branch shadow from your assistant just kind of doing this sometimes you'll see me out there and I'm kind of like this shooting directly in it and if I right now I've got a little actually even have a little bit of flair from there so I would kind of do that from the studio light so there's different ways to shade yourself from the sun so that's what I mean by it's easier sometimes two o'clock with regard to the direction of the white so we are we're dealing with really difficult lighting conditions making texture to mention a move with these images sometimes I will deliberately add a little bit of flair I'm not a big flare guy but every once in a while just to give the client a little something different same kind of light I'm just shooting she was being bustled this is a real moment I just step back and shot directly into the light here exposed properly whatever that might be you know I could have made her a complete so let if I wanted was a little detail um this is the quintessential way in which I like to use the light I want that little edge right here. Okay juxtaposed against nice dark background I liked this image very much. Six o'clock the magic hour anybody can shoot in this like this is the easiest thing in the world this is like what every photographer dreams about this is what every photographer plans for what they're shooting a building or people or whatever it's beautiful life and anybody can use it it's so simple expose properly I decided that I want to make them a silhouette when I'm doing a silhouette I want to make sure that there is a disparity between my shadow and my highlight okay in which case there is these people are severely under exposed and I tried to expose for the sky properly I'm sure he directly into this some people might say how did you expose for this? Well, I wasn't after priority and I I just let the camera do the work and I probably know the settings for this maybe like uh I s o two hundred maybe like eight thousandth of a second it five six somewhere around there something ridiculous if you're in automatic mode you shooting directly into the sonia your camera and your meter is going to say holy crap it's the sun and it's going to shut down it's going to stop down and you're going to find so don't worry about it you can do it do you sir? I am normally used spot mentoring or maybe that's what I said before use matrix just about all the time here's the other thing if I you spot me hearing on some of these areas that spot meter is you know, if it's a highlight what am I going to meet her on? If I spot meter on just the highlight you know it's going toe under expose the rest of the scene um I use matrix and I will you often use appetite priority and I will take that photograph and I will look at the face I'm not trying to meet her highlights and shadows I'm just trying to look at the face itself so in matrix meter that's my preferred metering method all right uh and when I get another image up like I'll actually show you what we can't focus on what we can't meet her off if I was looking at you right now could I meet her off from your face with a spot meter? Yes, but it also takes extra time I can put my camera to spot meter I couldn't do this then take the camera away from my face and reset mike it's very slow could you yes, I do not ok, our questions way have a few questions larry katz, ben san diego and others we know that you said you don't like a bounce flash because it's just kind of flatten boarding, right? Do you ever use any fill flash? I'm going to get to that when when I shoot group family photos, I'm going to show how that set up. Yes, I dio okay, but generally not for the getting ready portion of the day. I do not I'd rather I'd rather crank my eyes so upto sixty four hundred with a little quality directional light, then use any flash whatsoever in those situations the next thing we're going to deal with his flat light to create texture, dimension and moved sometimes you're in a situation where it's really flat out there seattle so when we look at this one, this is a pretty flat portrait it's a pretty standard portrait I have to give mom and dad something to put on the coffee table so I do these porches just like everyone else bridegroom staring at the camera no problem so what I'm going to do in this situation I'm going to take this picture very flat a little boring and then when I'm going to do is I'm going to move what's the difference between this frame and the last frame anybody it's just the direction in which I shop the frame the light still coming from the same direction I'm juxtaposing this highlight against a dark wall the lights coming from the same direction if I move back before it's still that flat light on them but it's not flat anymore because that created texture with the direction that the light is coming from and where I'm shooting from okay, same thing here this is a much brighter day but it can I'm in the same location that's an area in philadelphia love shooting there all the time it's an area where let's say we're chase the studio here if I rolled up that garage door I could pretty much use that same light is the same concept where we're underneath the light is coming through and a five shot from a particular direction and we had a darkish background I can create this light and so could you write in here ok and that's what I'm doing here just a little bit of light coming from that direction so we have flat light, but because we're shooting from a particular direction and the lights coming from particular direction, this looks like it's in a studio and it's not it's, just one light source and the lights pretty flat one is a rainy day in philadelphia I'm going to a particular location where I know the lights going to be beautiful, consistent and it's just going to change its intensity as the day gets a little bit later in the day noon it's going to be a little different quality of light than five o'clock in the afternoon, but it's still going to be beautiful direction? Sometimes I need to speed like sometimes, you know, this is very late, it was raining out, there was it was a disaster, so we have to go some places and I use the speed that I'm going to get to that a little bit. So here I used to pose a really interesting thiss city hall in that puddle reflection in philadelphia on I just had my assistant hit them with a speed light behind them, and I created a little bit of texture with the speed that you can see the speed light texture right here, I'm going to get it to speed lights in just a few minutes, all right? This is in a mall at one point for with e eighty five just in a mall simple and that's just they have these you know philly lights and the ceiling all that isthe sometimes if there's no light and I didn't have a speed light with me here I just had her just kind of look up it's a church in san francisco this is a real moment this is ah at the jersey shore they're just checking out their rings do you this I call this kind of like any time light flat light you can create texture in any kind of light and then after dark that's a little video light its auto advancing this scene was kind of interesting this is on area in hamilton new jersey grounds for sculpture for you jersey people at night it's kind of scene was lit up they used a very slow shutter speed to allow the entire scene to sort of permeate with regard to the light I wanted to capture that light when you're using slow shutter speeds and I'll get into this in a little bit as well when using slow shutter speeds and you want to stop that action use a speed light you can stop the action I probably shot this frame at about a fifteenth of a second with a seventy two two hundred millimeter lens and that's pretty slow but when you use a speed light the flash duration is going to stop your action everybody likes to take pictures in philadelphia on broad street and I like to do it at night. I like tio make sure that I get all the ambiance lighting in there that they put up. So I probably shot this maybe like a thirtieth of a second with a seventy, two hundred. And the speed light is what's allowing me to stop that action a little bit of rain. This next frame is that's a dubai, a little speed light balancing the shutter speed so that I allow the backgrounds to be exposed properly. A little bit of steam from esteem. Great that's in kentucky, lexington, kentucky. Wonderful place right on the street there, this is I s o ten thousand this is you know what we want to do the sparkler exit. Okay, great let's do a sparkler exit jacked up the ice so to ten thousand and I didn't want to use the speed light here because I wanted to use the lighting from the sparklers to illuminate the subject fireworks. This is really, really difficult. I've been shooting thirty one years and, you know, they had it was raining out, it was very, very foggy out, and after the first couple of fireworks went off, the entire scene was just a bunch of colored smoke and that's all that took place here, so oh, I did. There was kind of balance things out again. I used to turn expose properly. That could mean one thing to somebody in another to another. Could I have just completely silhouetted them against that? Yes, no problem. I just would've spent my shutter speed. All right, so let's, talk about speed lights. People asked me before russ ok, do I use a little bit of phil? Yes, I d'oh. The main thing that I'm going to talk about is getting the damn thing off the camera. Okay, that's number one way also have speed light here we have different settings. Manual auto. Okay, tio for me personally, tl is is not very accurate for me. If everyone was during eighteen percent gray, then it would be accurate. Remember what the meter is trying to do is trying to make things eighteen percent gray. If you're wearing that dark outfit and I put this in teo with no flash compensation, I'm going to blow your face to smithereens. Okay? So I like to use auto it's a little bit more controlled by distance from your subject and aperture. So if I said this is a place that the camera five point six it's going to give me it's basically got a little sensor in it. It's going to give me enough to put out five, six or whatever I s o I'm on I know this is going a little fast. I really get into detail here within my workshops that I just want to throw it out there. Step ahead, flash compensation dial on the nikon system. Guys flash compensation let's take let's. I put the flash on my camera, which I don't very often when your flash is connected to the hot shoe either by oh, the flash itself or maybe an sc twenty nine corridor. The county folks have an equivalent of sort okay, when I'm taking a picture and that flash is somehow connected to this and I see a frame that is under exposed I compress this right here a couple clicks here and that controls the output of the speed light it's this simple on the nikon system I don't have to reach up to the flash and change the output of the speed light. It can all be controlled right here and I don't even have to take the flash away from my face. I can do this. I see it's overexposed I just give a little clique that I could get a proper exposure it's a really cool little system like very, very much it can be very fast flash compensation similar to expose your compensation this woman here is wearing dark when the overall scene is darker than my subject more I have to compensate under otherwise the speed lights going put out a lot of light. If you had a great window behind you, I would have to lie to the to the camera and set the flash compensation to the plus side and say, ok, flash, put on a little bit of extra light here because we have to compensate for the extra light coming in again. Very fast. But you get the picture, make an instinctive don't forget to change flash compensation back let's, look at some group family pictures. Really simple. When we have a situation like this, I want to make these photographs perfect. Okay, almost studio like, and I'm looking for a little bit of open shade. Ok, I can do it in the sun, but I'm looking for a little bit of open shade. And then what I do, I use my little light stick here. Can I use these little flash benders? These air made by expo imaging, rogue flash benders is what they're called. This is a little soft box, okay? And it helps if you put it on the right way and I make a light stick. This is a pocket wizard who is also one of the sponsors of this this is the tt five it's called a tt five and I screw it into my model pop this is so easy to make a flash stick getting the flash off the camera from me years ago was one of the most intimidating processes of my career anybody here use flash off camera or anybody intimidated by it it is easier to get the flash off the camera that is to control the flash one is on the counter and I'm gonna explain why in a second I make my little stick the other thing I use for a power source I used the s d nine for my sb nine tens okay? And I put that little thing right around here wraps right around this stick and plugs right into here and what I'm trying to do is I'm trying to have my subject let's say let's pretend that these are life size and I have my subject it a little bit of an angle and this is where my assistants holding the stick and I am controlling this speed light with this little doo hickey it's called on a c three variable output controller it's his own controller this sits right here on something called a mini tt one this is the secret to the whole system podcasts on on the internet pocket wizards you can download that you can watch that and they're free I put that put beyond there and then when I take a frame let's say it's a little bit dark I can reach up to the zone controller and I can control the output with my index finger in one third of a stop increments it is so cool that I can do this then what do you think I'm using my flash what mode you think I'm using my flash tio auto manual what do you think? I'm using it manually anybody tell me why just ballpark yeah when I have this they said manual when I have this set to manual the output is going to be exactly the same each and every single time assuming the flash recycles properly which it will with the s t nine so if I have this that's why I was taking a portrait of you and my assistant had this off to here and I took a picture and I got a proper exposure well when the next group comes in this power is going to be exactly the same and I might have to move back a little bit or a closer because the group size me change but what's not going to change the exposure she said the like that's right? This isn't going to change but my exposure is not either so if I'm using this emanuel I can go to portland with a six billion millimeter lens I could take that picture the exposure values not going to change so my distance to my subject doesn't matter, but if I'm using a flash on camera, I see this in the park flash on camera twenty four to seventy here's a group of two bang bone bang and then you hear step back a little bit there's a group before they have to step back and then they have a little you know, the dome on top of the of the flash that go bang and then you hear the recycle, then you move back a little bit, maybe write yet may be, I don't know fifteen feet from the subject when you're fifteen feet from the subject, you're not bouncing off the clouds, okay, it's not gonna happen, so when you get back that four you're going to hear, click on the flash is going to go because the flash you're gonna choke, so if you are flash to subject, distance doesn't change because it's off camera I don't care how many formal family photos they put in front of me, I'm gonna bang him out, they're going to all look beautiful, consistent and what don't I have to change at all? My exposure values never have to change so the moral get the damn flash off camera and that's the secret, so I do my family pictures with a little bit off camera light, ok, very close family here's the formula I look for a little bit of open shade I look for bright, simple neutral back grounds for separation and I just the angles blah, blah blah in manual mode I generally under expose the scene by about two stops and fill in here is the answer to that internet question ross I generally under exposed the scene by about two stops and I fill in with my speed light the key is to underexposed just slightly and use the flash to fill in properly okay and a little slight angle what if I know this is a question of some people might say? Well, what if there's no open shade, no place to run, no place to hide? No problem I still keep my subject between me and the sun if I don't have any other options that still looks beautiful it's still nice bridal party pictures price means to be very happy with the's no problem on there we have so a little bit about off camera light the reception when I'm using a speed line at a reception I go available when I can but my assistant is an integral part of my day and there's a symbiosis that goes on between my assistant tonight where he or she really understands where they need to be in a particular given time it's going to be off camera kind of a forty five degree angle of sort via you know what'd be ayla's voice activated like stan I want to create texture with that light I use manual I don't use t t l and I control everything with that little a c three that's all my camera so here having a reception okay? And I'm trying to get off camera light creating detail but when I can and I don't need oh my goodness gracious here we go it shows going and going and going I wanted to go I told you was going too fast class, right? All right, I have no idea what happened to all of this. So, uh we take a couple questions, we'll take a couple questions I want to get into the next most important but smooth as silk. This presentation? Yes. Anybody having questions here in the audience? Yes, michael government. You know the shot. So you took out in the open sun? We're, uh you bouncing a light so there's no there's, no phil whatsoever in any of those scenes. Here's why too? Okay, no, they might come of this shot to some people. Thank you for the question, but as long as you exposed for the face properly I'm letting the highlights get a little blown out. No problem I don't mind that whatsoever. The other thing is if I wanted to fill in with any light where they put those where I put that light would also slow me down if I had to have a reflector someone was standing here I'm not going to have my assistant sit there you know with a reflector like this what if I wanted to go a little wider then I have to tell him to get the hell out of the frame so it slows me down when I have to do anything like that and then to me in my personal opinion is just not necessary to do so so I don't need one go for it that's a question from online yes have mike truck and I'm sure others out there who say cliff what does one do when lightning strike took my boot camp what's up my fantastic so mike wants to know what to do when limited with isil capabilities I have a d seven hundred that only goes to sixty four hundred and locate most cases I've never want to go above four thousand due to pretend shil noise what do you say to those people who have those on a more limited? Well, first of all I would say this I would say that I I s o four thousand at one point four if you have a one point four piece of glass on and that's not enough maybe you know sixtieth that one four s o four thousand that light's going to suck to begin with it might have a little tinge of quality to it but when it's that dim then you might have to start thinking about using the speed like um you know, I can take this puppy and I could go up to ten thousand but I tell you I'm only going up to ten thousand if the light is so so dim at that light level the quality of light is not going to be really great anyway, I'm on ly using mike I'm only using that light there is this kind of like I'm only using ten thousand I'm only using ten thousand if I absolutely have to and I'm looking to capture a particular moment that's really when the s o challenges come in so fast glass go up to four thousand and if that doesn't work well the quality of light to begin with isn't going to be very good any others at this point um do you want to go back to some of those slides? Apparently we've got them working I'm going to go into this I'm gonna go right here sounds great. Okay um no matter what we do, no matter how much light we understand no matter how much texture we create, no matter how our skills are it's all leading for me to the most important element of a wedding and that's the moments that we capture my wife and I talk often about making a picture it might surprise some of you to understand that if I make one picture in a year that I love, I've had a good year so far that hasn't happened to me there's been some pictures that I like that one little part a reflection in the rain I thought that was kind of creative and funky, and it was it was a nice picture, but to me to create a moment to find a moment to capture a moment to me that's, the most rewarding element and a cz my friend job you think would say there are no perfect images, there's only perfect moments and help he'll say that when he speaks, and I believe that and every ounce of skill that I have goes in to capturing these moments for these clients, the quiet moments, the found moments or the ones that are most compelling, the unobtrusive nature in which we carried ourselves is also very relevant to our ability to capture these moments are becoming one with our camera system is also relevant in our ability to capture these moments. If I'm there and I see this moment and I'm just, you know, all excited and I'm you're going to make yourself noticeable, so I like to carry myself almost cat like feeling like just very smooth and unobtrusive, if you will okay, this is a moment eighty five one four also relevant because of the look of the image grandfather, father, son moments before his event moments before he's going to walk down the aisle. Some of the images don't need any explanation has a mother and her daughter this is ah, a little foreshadowing for me when my daughters get married, you know I'm going to be very, very emotional mom and her daughter, there are times I have no idea what a subject is doing, what they're saying, it's just my job to capture some people might say, well, what are they saying? I don't know it's not my moment, and they're not our moments there there's beginning of the day remember, we set the stage for the moments to take place, but we don't stage of the moments I'm not a believer in uh, making the moment, if you will I want the moment to be as organic is it impossibly be so that their riel so that I can look at it? And so the client could look at it twenty years from now? And they can look at this moment on that mother can say, wow, I remember what I said to you that's when I whispered this in your ear not remember this mom that's one clip told us to do this I don't want that moments enormous before this is just the guys stowed away somewhere but I also used the same principles of light to capture this little bit right here and to your internet question russ the spot metering I will ask what the hell am I going to spot meter here? Where will I put the spot? It's a one percent so I put it I'm one spot on the nose you know how much effort it would take to just take that spot manner just put it right on that nose and then adjust from there and fire a frame to see that it's not proper in the fire for him again get there the fastest way you can if you want to spot meter and you could get there fast do it no problem but the number one rule this is told to me by great photographer years ago larry price larry I love you for this uh more the best photographers ever met the best photographers in the world he said no one rules get the picture and what's the other one get a better picture so those are the rules this is a very, very quiet moment this is his son and this is her new son they're getting married and their family and they took moments before the ceremony and I very unobtrusively was in there to capture these moments that's our job but if I don't have the skill set to do it, I do them a disservice so everything that we know about light everything that we know about cameras and all the other nonsense is meaningless meaningless if we can't do it on the first or second time this was a wonderful family she's looking at me like is my family not nuts father and daughter during the ceremony the moments the joy what's grandma I'm doing before the ceremony it's our job to find out you know but it turns out grand mom is actually great grandma moments before he's about to walk down an aisle this is a church in uh where is this somewhere in aa planet del carmen I think play hotel secreto was the name of the place actually moments before he's about to walk down the aisle I will find the groom in the sacristy and I hope that there's going to be a quiet moment that's taking place there from a technical standpoint I want to go through this image for a second because the technical elements really play a role in capturing this. I told you before that want my one four glass I'm almost always using my one four glass at one four I love one four I use my thirty five one four a lot I used my eighty five one for a lot I love them give you a look that you can't get with other pieces of glass however, when I was shooting this I was very close and I shot this image at one point four and sure I could see him in the reflection, but because there's a distance because of the reflection a great distance between edward sacristy and him one four didn't work, so I sped up my eyes so I raised my eyes so I shot this at four point five I very rarely use one point four point five taking off one four for me is like an aberration, so I took it off one four went to pour five I see the word sacristy they go technical, but the technical is meaningless without the moment, but the moment is meaningless if you don't have the technical because you're not going to capture the moment a little bit of light I get choked up when they see this image. Um this is ah moment before she's about to see her groom on the wedding day they're in rittenhouse square in philadelphia. I see dad walking through the park and I'm actually saying to myself, oh crap, I hope he doesn't ruin the moment between bride and groom what he actually did was give me one of the most compelling moments that I've ever made why is it compelling? Why is it so compelling? Well I use these things called images of the week once in a while on my block it's one of those things where when I can't figure out what the blogged I'll just pick an image of the week even though it's like you know every six weeks and I made this image an image of the week once and the bride contacted me a day later and told me that this was so special to her and it was so ironic because her dad had passed away the week before a year and a half after the wedding what compelled me to choose this image eighteen months after the wedding? I had no idea, but this is what wedding photography is about to make moments before what use is having great dipped to feel if there's not an adequate depth of feeling one without the others ridiculous meanings this is in hong kong moments before he had no idea I was shooting him, he just thought I was shooting father daughter they were both messing with their flowers I swear to god he was going to ruin that thing, he just wouldn't leave it alone leering might surprise you. This is my favorite picture from two thousand twelve my favorite picture out of all that wasn't a bridal portrait, it wasn't something else wasn't bride and groom this was a couple that had been married for sixty nine years when I see a couple like this, I asked them how long you been married now joke with them I don't know I'm blown away I met a couple that was married for seventy one years a couple months ago that blows my freakin mind I'm a newlywed I've been married what, six months? Five months I find this so amazing and what happened here? I tried to get them out of the way quickly so that they can go and they can sit down because I didn't want to keep them standing for longer than they had to be and they ask I escorted them to this bench and they went on and I continue to shoot and then I kept turning and I kept seeing this interaction between this amazing couple and I stopped the family pictures for a moment and I went on, I took two frames and one of them she touched his face they're not our moments, but we have to capture and I love this picture so much and I'm proud of this photo. So that was the last truly great picture that I've made. In my opinion, this was my favorite photograph of two thousand ten I think it wass two thousand ten this gentlemen was the father of the groom, the officiant of the wedding ah holocaust survivor who was showing his tattoo earlier and I saw that and in this board room, this is during something called a tissue during a jewish wedding and he's sitting at this table and there was one horrendous light source a can above him in this boardroom. The on ly light that you can really see was eliminating his face, and the rest of the room was kind of dark. I used every ounce of technical skill that I had to capture this image because this was so you could see how dark the rest of the areas. So how do you meet her on that? Could you spot meter? Yep, that would be the time, but I really have to. I probably used after priority under exposed it drastically. I work this image a little bit. One moment he held his other sons hand and just kind of looked up. I love this picture. I really do. This is during the family pictures. I just didn't take my camera way from my face. We're just waiting for his sister. A mom reached out and touched his face during a tuba signing in a jewish wedding. This is where a lot of the emotion comes from. A lot of emotion here, just the layering in this picture is kind of interesting could tube assigning again. I have no idea what the hell she's doing just so it was kind of funny you know it's like she's casting a spell on the couple I guess I don't know I thought it was a moment seconds before his daughter's about to walk down the aisle just a little reflection just look james l one said take a look at what you're looking at if you don't know j look among one of the greatest photographers of twentieth century, this kid was all over the place and he's kind of get in the way but, um hit she took a moment will I call this the what the hell am I doing here? Photo because we have the step father of the bride we have the rabbi we have the grand mother of the groom, I guess his caregivers and that's the husband of the caregiver and he really wants to be there moments before I also ten thousand when mike asked that question what I s so I would go to russ um in this particular situation, the noise level didn't matter didn't matter. I would have taken that d seven hundred boarded up to eight thousand five had to even if it was a little blurry I didn't care I had to capture this moment without a speed light because the speed light would have destroyed this image there's some other moments many are just self explanatory this pride rowe asked me, can I please take a moment and take her to see her grandmother before she went to see the groom because grand mom can't make it to the wedding I said oh my god of course grandma wants to smell the roses in my bouquet yes rowe absolutely and I made that they're sharing a smell and it was very moving and two weeks later when she got back from the honeymoon she called me up and she said my grandma passed away did you make any pictures at the hospital and I said yeah ro I did and this is in her casket so if you think what we do is insignificant think again who's holding her together that's gonna be me that's definitely gonna be may I know it first time he sees her during a jewish wedding it's called um maybe deccan the first time they see him the light it's all about the light, right? No, the lights secondary to the moment but the light helps if I can make a nice picture using nice light on a nice moment I've made a hell of an image I'm just going to kind of move through these a little bit I don't have much time left moments folks that's what it's all about some ceremony images long lens for the professionals indian weddings I love indian weddings father of the bride a couple weeks ago the emotions that's what it's about mama the picture is good or not. From the moment it was caught on camera folks, there is no un suck filter and photoshopped with keep that in mind. They ran out the church, and they wanted to present some roses to his grand parents, who raised him. And that was the image I made there. If it makes you laugh, if it makes you cry, if it rips your heart out that's a good picture. I end every workshop, every seminario I've ever done with this image, because if you look at this picture long enough, you'll see an old lady. Thank you for watching.