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How Lenses Shape the Image and Help Tell Your Story

Lesson 3 from: Wedding Photographer Survival Kit

Susan Stripling

How Lenses Shape the Image and Help Tell Your Story

Lesson 3 from: Wedding Photographer Survival Kit

Susan Stripling

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Lesson Info

3. How Lenses Shape the Image and Help Tell Your Story

Lessons

Class Trailer

DAY 1

1

Class Introduction

09:27
2

The Gear That Will Save You in Tough Situations

09:19
3

How Lenses Shape the Image and Help Tell Your Story

29:39
4

Light Modifiers for Your Survival Kit

04:47
5

Gear to Spice Up Bland Images: Prisms, Mist and More

10:48
6

Walkthrough of a Difficult Venue

11:46
7

Why Each Room Works and Why It Doesn't

07:14
8

Wedding Day Details in a Difficult Situation: Dress

25:34
9

Wedding Day Details in a Difficult Situation: Rings

19:39
10

Wedding Day Details in a Difficult Situation: Shoes

23:28
11

Photographing the Bride Getting Ready in Difficult Scenarios

20:12
12

Photographing the Bride Getting Ready in a Small, Cluttered Room

14:21
13

Photographing the Bride Getting Ready in a Dark Hallway

30:07
14

Photographing the Bride Getting Ready in a Doorway

13:28
15

Portraits of the Bride in a Small Room

07:38
16

Removing the Surrounding Space for a Bridal Portrait

07:36
17

Window Lit Bridal Portrait in a Tough Space

12:55
18

How to Shoot a Quick and Simple Bridal Portrait

23:18
19

Photographing Guys, Complaining Brides and "Helpful" Bridesmaids

26:58

DAY 2

20

Portraits of Bride and Groom: Ideal Situations

25:33
21

Portraits of Bride and Groom: When Things Go Wrong

13:25
22

Bride and Groom Portraits: What to Do If You're Indoors

20:21
23

Bride and Groom Portraits: How to Pose an Awkward Couple

19:39
24

Family Formals: How to Achieve Your Ideal Situations

16:16
25

Family Formals: When Things are Less Than Ideal

09:55
26

Family Formals in an Awful Space

15:50
27

Family Formals Recap and Questions

30:14
28

Photographing the Reception

23:17
29

Reception Q&A

24:42
30

What Can You Do to Safeguard Your Business?

26:34
31

Contracts Q&A

09:14
32

Dealing with Social Media as a Wedding Photographer

15:45
33

What if Advertising Isn't Working?

05:34
34

What to do When Everyone Just Wants More

07:35
35

When Everyone Says I Am Too Expensive

16:08
36

When You Hate Your Job as a Wedding Photographer

11:54

Lesson Info

How Lenses Shape the Image and Help Tell Your Story

00:00:02.31 --> 00:00:06. Why these lenses? Why? Why air these things going 00:00:06.02 --> 00:00:08. to be the things in my survival kit it's because your 00:00:08.35 --> 00:00:11. lenses shape your images and I've talked about this 00:00:11.56 --> 00:00:13. before when I was brand new in the wedding photography, 00:00:14.0 --> 00:00:16. I thought the seventy two, two hundred was the thing 00:00:16.05 --> 00:00:17. you put on your camera when you had to stand at the 00:00:17.51 --> 00:00:20. back of the ceremony and you had to zoom and get close. 00:00:21.31 --> 00:00:24. I didn't have I knew photography wantto one what your 00:00:24.87 --> 00:00:27. lenses did, how they looked, what the difference of 00:00:27.63 --> 00:00:29. the look of a two hundred woz versus the look of a 00:00:30.0 --> 00:00:32. thirty five, but I hadn't quite put in place in my 00:00:32.83 --> 00:00:36. head that those things actually change the story. 00:00:36.33 --> 00:00:39. Your images are telling and let's...

talk about why they 00:00:39.49 --> 00:00:40. tell your story. 00:00:42.11 --> 00:00:46. So why this lens? I mean, this image right here is 00:00:46.61 --> 00:00:50. that twenty four millimeters, it looks like this because 00:00:50.51 --> 00:00:53. it's at twenty four millimeters, you have the relationship 00:00:53.15 --> 00:00:56. between your foreground and background because you 00:00:56.18 --> 00:00:59. are at that specific focal length. If I shot this 00:00:59.75 --> 00:01:03. scene and I actually we'll do it later in this workshop, 00:01:04.04 --> 00:01:06. if I had shot this scene with an eighty five or seventy 00:01:06.66 --> 00:01:09. two, two hundred it's not going to look like this. 00:01:12.61 --> 00:01:15. Come on, little thing. Seventy millimeters there's. 00:01:15.8 --> 00:01:17. A difference between how this looks and how the image 00:01:17.9 --> 00:01:21. before it looked. Why you're foreground background 00:01:21.09 --> 00:01:24. relationship, it different. Focal links the compression 00:01:24.0 --> 00:01:27. and look of the human figure at different focal lengths. 00:01:28.41 --> 00:01:29. This right here, 00:01:30.71 --> 00:01:32. hang on a second. Go slide, go 00:01:33.54 --> 00:01:34. so seventy millimeters here. 00:01:36.01 --> 00:01:38. So this is the skyline of manhattan. We're out on 00:01:38.55 --> 00:01:41. a boat. We are cruising around manhattan at one of 00:01:41.23 --> 00:01:43. the most awesome weddings ever, and the bride and 00:01:43.34 --> 00:01:46. groom wanted a few pictures out on the deck. I'm standing 00:01:46.63 --> 00:01:50. here with my twenty four to seventy. This is how faraway 00:01:50.19 --> 00:01:52. manhattan was. Tow us right there. 00:01:54.85 --> 00:01:57. That's it two hundred millimeters were in the same 00:01:57.46 --> 00:02:01. spot. But look at how much closer the background looks 00:02:01.37 --> 00:02:04. to the subject because you were at that long limbs, 00:02:04.79 --> 00:02:07. and we're going to talk about sort of the forced perspective 00:02:07.15 --> 00:02:10. of the long lens. But this wouldn't look like that. 00:02:11.07 --> 00:02:13. At twenty four millimeters, manhattan would look like 00:02:13.37 --> 00:02:16. it was ten miles away. Now it looks like you can practically 00:02:16.64 --> 00:02:20. reach out and touch it. So lynn selection plays a 00:02:20.38 --> 00:02:24. large part in how this image actually looks. 00:02:26.88 --> 00:02:30. The macro lens it's not going to look like that without 00:02:30.08 --> 00:02:33. the macro perspective, it's just not much as you might 00:02:33.53 --> 00:02:34. want it. Tio 00:02:36.02 --> 00:02:39. eighty five millimeter one for that particular one 00:02:39.55 --> 00:02:42. point four look, coupled with the compression at eighty 00:02:42.46 --> 00:02:45. five millimeters, you cannot replicate that in photo 00:02:45.54 --> 00:02:48. shop or with another linz or with another linds. No 00:02:48.72 --> 00:02:52. matter what your f stop, it is native to that lends 00:02:52.31 --> 00:02:52. itself. 00:02:54.22 --> 00:02:57. So why will these lenses help you in difficult situations 00:02:57.09 --> 00:02:59. like that's, great and all. But if we're looking to 00:02:59.5 --> 00:03:02. survive here, howard, how is this care going to actually 00:03:02.55 --> 00:03:06. help you do that? Well, let's talk about it. So one 00:03:06.19 --> 00:03:10. hundred five millimeter macro okay, lets you get close 00:03:10.47 --> 00:03:13. to small subjects I mean done 00:03:14.12 --> 00:03:16. and allows you to fill the frame with those subjects, 00:03:16.35 --> 00:03:18. which you can't do. You can get pretty close to a 00:03:18.77 --> 00:03:20. ring with a twenty four to seventy. You can't fill 00:03:20.89 --> 00:03:21. the frame with it. 00:03:24.42 --> 00:03:26. It's helpful when photographing very small and important 00:03:26.77 --> 00:03:29. details and here's the kicker you need very little 00:03:29.28 --> 00:03:32. shooting space so your room is difficult your room 00:03:32.48 --> 00:03:35. it's small the light is bad you don't have many places 00:03:35.59 --> 00:03:38. to go you've got a macro lens all you need is about 00:03:38.92 --> 00:03:41. a square foot of space and you're going to see me 00:03:41.55 --> 00:03:45. shoot a ring shot in the middle of a ballroom with 00:03:45.06 --> 00:03:48. no light whatsoever with a nice light and a macro 00:03:48.21 --> 00:03:51. lens could not do that with any other type of lens 00:03:51.41 --> 00:03:55. so do we know what the room looks like here no, this 00:03:55.59 --> 00:03:57. could have been the most beautiful getting ready room 00:03:57.26 --> 00:03:59. ever are the most difficult getting ready room ever 00:04:00.03 --> 00:04:02. but a macro lens he's going to help you out when the situation's air tough because you're going to be able to get close to your subject and you're going to be able to minimize the amount of space that you need to make that image which on a difficult day is super helpful so I used my macro lens at every single wedding that I shoot I really like doing detail shots I keep it very minimal I don't spend a whole ton of time on these I don't want it to suck up the day I don't want it to take away from what's going on with the clients but it is an absolutely essential part of my bag when I am trying to survive. Shooting details whether the room is good or bad. So here's, the big kicker with a macro lens. A really good, amazing macro lens is not cheap. The nine hundred five millimeter macro is eight hundred fifty dollars and that hurts that's a lot of money for linz that I use for a very little portion of the day so if you don't have eight hundred fifty dollars but you'd like to add this lens to your arsenal what do you do well you can buy an extension tube's set and what an extension tube's set does is it basically shortens the minimum focus distance of your lens I've played with them they're cool I happen to like my macro lens better but if I didn't have eight hundred fifty dollars to spend on a linz with eighty bucks you're getting part of the way there a reversing ring kind of fun weird but kind of fun it basically lets you mount your mount your linds backwards on your camera and you buy them on amazon for fifteen dollars again I think that my hundred five millimeter macro is a little bit sharper but if you've got fifteen bucks and you want to start playing around with macro photography there you go you can also buy a closeup filter fifteen bucks all of these air listed out on my resource page so if your excuse is I really need a macro lens it will really help me out but I don't 00:06:01.343 --> 00:06:04. have eight hundred dollars buy one if you've got fifteen 00:06:04.24 --> 00:06:08. dollars an amazon prime you khun b playing with your 00:06:08.34 --> 00:06:11. macro photography in two days or for three, ninety 00:06:11.01 --> 00:06:13. nine in one day shipping. Thank you, amazon prime. 00:06:15.46 --> 00:06:18. I mean I don't really remember a time without amazon 00:06:18.64 --> 00:06:23. prime my new logic is can I wait two days for it great 00:06:23.47 --> 00:06:26. we can amazon prime it so the next lens that is absolutely 00:06:26.73 --> 00:06:31. crucial and this is a major one for me in shooting 00:06:31.26 --> 00:06:33. difficult situations is the eighty five millimeter 00:06:33.62 --> 00:06:36. one four if I'm gonna pull that eighty five millimeter 00:06:36.52 --> 00:06:39. one for out and put it on my camera it's going to 00:06:39.38 --> 00:06:42. be because I want to shoot it close toe one for because 00:06:42.24 --> 00:06:44. otherwise why I could put the seventy two two hundred 00:06:44.69 --> 00:06:47. on and shoot in the eighty five millimeter range but 00:06:47.66 --> 00:06:49. if I'm getting that on there it's because I want one 00:06:49.56 --> 00:06:53. for I want one six I want one eight it's for a reason 00:06:53.52 --> 00:06:56. so what's that reason f one four will allow you to 00:06:56.38 --> 00:07:00. reduce background clutter and noise you have a busy 00:07:00.28 --> 00:07:02. scattered crazy getting ready room and you want to 00:07:02.63 --> 00:07:05. minimize the background one point four done 00:07:07.02 --> 00:07:09. what else will it do for you it will help you isolate 00:07:09.33 --> 00:07:11. your subjects better because you are focused on such 00:07:11.84 --> 00:07:14. a tiny small portion of the image you're going to 00:07:14.69 --> 00:07:16. get better isolation going people lift them off of 00:07:16.67 --> 00:07:19. cluttered maybe not as pretty backgrounds at one for 00:07:19.93 --> 00:07:21. in a way that you couldn't do it to eight or three 00:07:21.75 --> 00:07:26. five or four more and minimize minimize minimize so 00:07:27.26 --> 00:07:30. this is getting ready room and for those of you who 00:07:30.28 --> 00:07:32. and it's funny no matter how many times I teach there 00:07:32.42 --> 00:07:36. is still an odd misconception that I have great situations 00:07:36.47 --> 00:07:39. handed to me every single time I go to a wedding and 00:07:40.36 --> 00:07:43. I mean that would be awesome I am very fortunate that 00:07:43.01 --> 00:07:45. I work with really great people who have really fun 00:07:45.33 --> 00:07:47. weddings but that doesn't mean that you're not going 00:07:47.49 --> 00:07:50. to find yourself in a conference room when you're 00:07:50.38 --> 00:07:52. shooting it getting ready and you can see me in the 00:07:52.24 --> 00:07:54. background I'm talking to the bride and freaking out 00:07:54.97 --> 00:07:56. a little bit because this is the room that I have 00:07:56.65 --> 00:07:58. to deal with that's not that's the videographer over 00:07:58.98 --> 00:08:02. there that's not one of my people but my assistant was watching me sort of circumnavigate this difficult situation she took a picture with her iphone and I thought this is the best picture ever because I can use it to show what can an eighty five one four do and now would I have ideally like to move her to another room yeah I would have loved to pick up hair and make up and put it in the amazing sweet that she had to get ready that's not how life works I can't show up and start art directing this day and above everything else this isn't my day this is her wedding day she does not need me to walk into her conference room and go I don't like this conference room let's move it's not about me if I weren't art director and this were a commercial shoot I could walk in and say this doesn't work it was a wedding photographer you have to walk in and be like how can I make this work so I can start off with my eighty five one four and started minimizing at one for now I've said this before and I'll say it again if you're going to shoot at one four you've got to make sure that your focal point is directly on your subject you cannot focus and recompose your depth of field is so small that if you focus and recompose even a hair you've lost what you're trying to get in focus so when I'm shooting something like this I'm actually taking that little red focal point and putting it right on her eyeball right there otherwise if I focused on her eye with my center focal point and recomposed her eyes not gonna be in focus anymore I can do that it to eight or four cannot do that at one four is this the greatest picture I've ever made in my entire career? No of course it's not but did I serve to isolate her make the focus about her and remove some of the distracting background elements I did you've still got bridesmaids wandering around right behind her and you can see in this other picture you see how close these girls are to the scene but with that eighty five one for it one four I can isolate the bride that's what's important eighty five one four at one for same situation what's going on in the side of the image over here it's an empty water bottle on empty plastic clear water bottle these brides have makeup artists with that with them on the wedding day a lot of the times and make up artist isn't there friend she's not a family member it's just someone that was hired to be there on the wedding day same as me so sometimes I like to try to minimize the makeup artist because I know that it's not an important person that they're going to want to look back on these pictures later like if she was getting her makeup done by one of her bridesmaids that's personal but for this I wanted to focus on lee on her face and the process that was going on so I just obstructed the lens with something and we'll talk a little bit more about the modifiers that I bring and use to sort of obstruct the lens and push focus directly to the clients towards the left of the frame that is an empty perrier bottle and again what is that blocking over here it's blocking all of the makeup artist stuff that was on the table their makeup box and sort of the stuff they had sitting there it's not helping me tell the story, so I blocked it out I didn't want to just shoot this because I wanted to have a little bit more going on compositionally but eighty five one for it one for the bridesmaids in the background are supplementing the story while not distracting from the story so I use my eighty five one for out one for any time I really need to isolate and minimize so isolate and minimize so you have a room like this this is and when I say this is the room she got ready in I am standing with my back to the door this is the room this is new york this is what a lot of getting ready rooms look like they are tiny very tiny and we've got a videographer we have one two three four five six bridesmaids to makeup artists and hair people one teeny tiny grandma a mom and they're all in this room and there's stuff everywhere these people were having blast did they care that they room with small? Of course not does it matter that the room is small? Of course not when we talk about these difficult situations I don't ever want any of you to think that I am judging my clients or thinking less of them because they had a small room are it's just life saying that something is a difficult situation doesn't mean that I'm saying that these people are difficult people or that I wish that they had done their wedding in a different way it's none of that it's just difficult doesn't make it bad so you walk into a room like this the videographers over there videographer thing he was actually a really great guy but you walk in and you think oh my gosh how am I going to isolate my subjects in a space that is so difficult like all of my training and all of my knowledge of lenses there's a lot going on in here eighty five one for that one for in the exact same room lets you really is that you know look at the image on the right or is their stuff on the bed is there stuff in the room of course there is there just was stuff in there I can't go into a room that small and start cleaning it up they're just straight up hands down no way there's nowhere to put anything so I let it be what it is but the focus in the image on the left is very clearly the bride and the focus and the image on the right is very clearly the cuties grandmother I have ever seen are the situation's still difficult they are but am I able to point your finger there is my subject there is my subject absolutely that's why the eighty five one four for me is a very crucial lens same room she's sitting in the chair getting our parent makeup done it's a tiny room it's crowded with people eighty five one four at one four focus directly on the ring she was moving her ring she was playing with it I had shot it putting it back on you have no idea where you are there because that lens helped me out same room she's sitting in the corner up against the curtains 00:14:02.493 --> 00:14:05. we could be anywhere but to the power of the eighty 00:14:05.54 --> 00:14:08. five one for your focus is directly where you want 00:14:08.59 --> 00:14:11. it to be so then we go over the guy's room at this 00:14:11.43 --> 00:14:14. wedding and shocker of all shockers his room was no 00:14:14.29 --> 00:14:19. bigger at all but we're still able to make really 00:14:19.26 --> 00:14:22. nice images where your focus is exactly where you 00:14:22.63 --> 00:14:27. want it to be because of that lens now yes is it partly 00:14:27.26 --> 00:14:29. because of I've placed them in the situation where 00:14:29.73 --> 00:14:31. the light is coming through and it looks really nice 00:14:31.56 --> 00:14:34. off course isn't partly because it's composed well 00:14:34.47 --> 00:14:35. of course 00:14:36.5 --> 00:14:38. would I take this image with a twenty four to seventy 00:14:38.54 --> 00:14:40. eight to eight and go in and blur the background and 00:14:40.54 --> 00:14:42. photoshopped someone's already shaking their head 00:14:42.62 --> 00:14:45. no I would not because that's insane and who has that 00:14:45.73 --> 00:14:48. kind of time I mean it's november we're all dead right? 00:14:48.64 --> 00:14:52. Who is his tired right now? Thank you everybody it's 00:14:52.34 --> 00:14:54. the end of wedding season we are all hanging on by 00:14:54.67 --> 00:14:58. a proverbial thread it would take one thing to go 00:14:58.53 --> 00:15:00. wrong to just crack at all 00:15:01.4 --> 00:15:04. but you got to keep on swimming so yes all of my training 00:15:04.84 --> 00:15:07. has gone into composing and lighting and putting these 00:15:07.06 --> 00:15:10. scenes together but it's that lens out one for that's 00:15:10.91 --> 00:15:13. really helping elevated from what somebody else might 00:15:13.28 --> 00:15:17. have done in that situation and I use it all the time 00:15:17.77 --> 00:15:20. I use it in low light at receptions I will use it 00:15:20.97 --> 00:15:22. to shoot details 00:15:23.66 --> 00:15:27. getting readies with the cubist dad of all time I 00:15:27.14 --> 00:15:29. mean he kills me right here he came in he saw her 00:15:29.82 --> 00:15:31. for the first time and he was so overwhelmed all he 00:15:31.81 --> 00:15:34. could do is give her the thumbs up it was amazing 00:15:35.2 --> 00:15:38. you know getting ready is the focus goes directly 00:15:38.05 --> 00:15:41. to where you want it to go getting ready in the corner 00:15:41.37 --> 00:15:44. of a room I mean this is literally the corner of a 00:15:44.05 --> 00:15:46. bedroom somewhere but your focus goes exactly where 00:15:46.38 --> 00:15:50. you want it today details getting ready ceremonies 00:15:50.9 --> 00:15:54. receptions portrait's of the bride by herself the 00:15:54.27 --> 00:15:56. only time I don't really pull out the eighty five 00:15:56.35 --> 00:16:00. one for is portrait of the bride and groom sometimes 00:16:00.81 --> 00:16:03. I do in the situations are super super difficult but 00:16:03.47 --> 00:16:05. it's not really my go to for that time of the day 00:16:06.82 --> 00:16:09. so this lens is a bit out of my budget that is a pricey 00:16:09.99 --> 00:16:12. linz I mean anybody who owns it knows that it kind 00:16:12.93 --> 00:16:16. of hurts when you buy it because it's expensive you 00:16:16.16 --> 00:16:18. know my husband always says if you're dithering between 00:16:18.83 --> 00:16:21. the eighty five one four in the eighty five one eight 00:16:22.32 --> 00:16:25. if you can see where the difference is then you'll 00:16:25.69 --> 00:16:28. know where your money goes and for me that one four 00:16:28.75 --> 00:16:31. helps me just that extra little bit I shoot so many 00:16:31.98 --> 00:16:34. weddings I've been shooting for so many years I know 00:16:34.08 --> 00:16:38. that it's going to be a workhorse um so I know that 00:16:38.12 --> 00:16:41. I need the eighty five one for at one for however 00:16:43.02 --> 00:16:45. sigma makes a pretty good eighty five one four for 00:16:45.64 --> 00:16:48. nine hundred sixty nine dollars now I'm a nikon shooter 00:16:48.33 --> 00:16:51. all of the lenses that I'm showing you our nikon so 00:16:51.72 --> 00:16:53. sorry kanan I don't know how to help you I'm just 00:16:53.69 --> 00:16:56. getting nikon also makes the eighty five one eight 00:16:56.67 --> 00:16:58. and it's less than five hundred dollars so if you're 00:16:58.99 --> 00:17:02. venturing into this wide world of eighty five millimeter 00:17:02.18 --> 00:17:05. lens with an f stop that's not two eight or more the 00:17:05.61 --> 00:17:07. eighty five one eight is a perfectly fine place to 00:17:07.81 --> 00:17:11. start I shot with the cannon eighty five one eight 00:17:11.14 --> 00:17:13. all those years that I was cannon I never upgraded 00:17:13.15 --> 00:17:17. to the one two long story as to why but it didn't 00:17:17.33 --> 00:17:19. really serve me with the types of weddings I was shooting 00:17:19.71 --> 00:17:21. I was living in florida I wasn't dealing with much 00:17:22.42 --> 00:17:25. low light it was everything was shiny when I moved 00:17:25.54 --> 00:17:27. to new york and I really needed that extra from one 00:17:27.73 --> 00:17:31. eight two one four I I can tell where the extra thousand 00:17:31.25 --> 00:17:33. dollars plus has gone with that lens 00:17:35.66 --> 00:17:36. twenty four to seventy 00:17:38.07 --> 00:17:40. it is a very first style focal lens the end 00:17:41.79 --> 00:17:45. I I can tell you why it's great but it's great because 00:17:45.4 --> 00:17:47. it is super versatile like you could go from twenty 00:17:47.58 --> 00:17:52. four to seventy two everywhere in between now why 00:17:52.18 --> 00:17:54. when am I going to use it and how is it going to help 00:17:54.26 --> 00:17:57. me it is going to help me when I need to show a whole 00:17:57.4 --> 00:18:01. scene when I've got to step back and open up and I 00:18:01.03 --> 00:18:02. don't want to fumble for another prime 00:18:03.72 --> 00:18:06. it is a huge workhorse in my bag 00:18:07.43 --> 00:18:11. is it really a survival linds? Not really but it will 00:18:11.67 --> 00:18:14. help you survive in the way that if you just had to 00:18:14.53 --> 00:18:17. grab one lens and run it's a pretty good one to grab 00:18:17.9 --> 00:18:20. but I have to mention it because it is kind of a big 00:18:20.93 --> 00:18:24. staple in my bag I use it for anything or I want to 00:18:24.24 --> 00:18:27. go wide I don't like going much wider than twenty 00:18:27.12 --> 00:18:29. four millimeters I don't use that sixteen to thirty 00:18:29.04 --> 00:18:31. five much unless I'm doing room shots but for the 00:18:31.88 --> 00:18:36. regular day in day out of a wedding day twenty four 00:18:36.17 --> 00:18:38. to seventy is always on one of my camera bodies and 00:18:38.88 --> 00:18:43. I'm shooting stuff like that and getting ready when 00:18:43.24 --> 00:18:44. I want to step back into the whole room 00:18:46.29 --> 00:18:49. where it will save you sometimes is when you need 00:18:49.16 --> 00:18:51. to get kind of close in a difficult situation, but 00:18:51.65 --> 00:18:53. you don't want to get sort of the distortion of a 00:18:53.37 --> 00:18:56. super wide angle lens. So, for example, here there, 00:18:56.35 --> 00:18:58. signing their marriage licence. And there is straight 00:18:58.59 --> 00:19:01. up chaos going on behind me. And I'm leaning on the 00:19:01.58 --> 00:19:04. table from my end. And if I open up a twenty for it, 00:19:04.7 --> 00:19:06. makes the space look a little bit bigger. It makes 00:19:06.36 --> 00:19:09. them look like they have a little bit more room, but 00:19:09.02 --> 00:19:11. we don't have room. I'm literally laying stomach down 00:19:11.44 --> 00:19:12. on the table in front of them. 00:19:15.16 --> 00:19:18. You know, tiny church trying to make it look bigger. 00:19:18.58 --> 00:19:20. So that's, where it's, you know, if you're trying 00:19:20.54 --> 00:19:23. to figure out how it will save you, it will save you 00:19:23.56 --> 00:19:26. in a situation when you need to make it look like 00:19:26.05 --> 00:19:27. there is more space. But there's not, 00:19:29.09 --> 00:19:31. you know, making a tiny dance floor look bigger, 00:19:32.29 --> 00:19:34. getting close in on somebody. These were the only 00:19:34.79 --> 00:19:37. people on the dance floor. It was the bride, the groom, 00:19:37.53 --> 00:19:40. and about a dozen people around them. If I got wide 00:19:40.49 --> 00:19:42. and I got close, it made it look like a patent dance 00:19:42.63 --> 00:19:42. for 00:19:44.63 --> 00:19:47. overalls of, ah, reception space at the sweetest backyard 00:19:47.47 --> 00:19:50. wedding ever in the entire world. I love these people 00:19:50.03 --> 00:19:50. so hard. 00:19:53.29 --> 00:19:55. You know it's, a little dance floor in a little backyard, 00:19:55.95 --> 00:19:59. but it looks huge and grand, and they're awesome. 00:20:00.79 --> 00:20:03. So seventy two, two hundred, both f four and the two 00:20:03.97 --> 00:20:07. eight, because I'm crazy. I got so the seventy, two 00:20:07.41 --> 00:20:10. hundred to eight, in churches and dark rooms. If I 00:20:10.66 --> 00:20:13. basically, if I've got to go under f for I'm going 00:20:13.55 --> 00:20:16. to carry this this lens seventy two, two hundred f 00:20:16.47 --> 00:20:20. for for everything else, I generally don't shoot portrait's 00:20:20.98 --> 00:20:24. of the bride and groom below. F four. Why would I 00:20:24.15 --> 00:20:26. carry that beast of a two eight when I can put that 00:20:26.78 --> 00:20:29. tiny light delicious little seventy two, two hundred 00:20:29.25 --> 00:20:32. for on there, I'm gonna be shooting it for anyhow. 00:20:32.96 --> 00:20:35. Why not family formals, seventy two, two hundred and 00:20:35.71 --> 00:20:39. four receptions, two great lens. 00:20:41.16 --> 00:20:43. Yes, I really love this lens, huh? I think it is awesome. 00:20:46.06 --> 00:20:48. So the phenomenon I get punchy in november, okay, 00:20:48.88 --> 00:20:51. I can't help it the phenomenon of lynn's compression 00:20:53.46 --> 00:20:56. when you were at a longer lens, your background elements 00:20:56.13 --> 00:20:59. appear closer than they really are. If you are unsure 00:20:59.27 --> 00:21:02. as to what this means standing your dog or a child 00:21:02.58 --> 00:21:06. or a model or a stool outside, shoot it at twenty 00:21:06.95 --> 00:21:09. four millimeters. Look at the relationship between 00:21:09.16 --> 00:21:11. the foreground in the background, back up a little 00:21:11.61 --> 00:21:13. bit, that's the key right there, you back up, put 00:21:13.99 --> 00:21:17. a fifty millimeter on background foreground. Relationship 00:21:17.15 --> 00:21:20. starts to change back up further longer, linds, you're 00:21:20.93 --> 00:21:24. backing away from your subject using a longer lynn's 00:21:24.05 --> 00:21:26. makes your background look closer. I could go into 00:21:26.88 --> 00:21:30. the math of this, but I'm not going to, but it really 00:21:30.75 --> 00:21:33. is just a phenomenon of perception. 00:21:35.19 --> 00:21:38. Compression also helps eliminate distracting backgrounds. 00:21:38.66 --> 00:21:41. Fly wide angle, portrait's air, not flattering. Because 00:21:41.86 --> 00:21:43. you're close to the subject, the tip of the nose will 00:21:43.89 --> 00:21:46. look large and the ears, neck and hairline will look 00:21:46.45 --> 00:21:46. small 00:21:48.16 --> 00:21:50. when you step away from your subject. The change in 00:21:50.35 --> 00:21:53. your distance, your distance to the subject changes. 00:21:56.16 --> 00:21:57. What does that mean in the real world? 00:21:58.66 --> 00:22:02. Twenty four millimeters. You see the wide room, it 00:22:02.11 --> 00:22:03. looks like her background, even though it's not not 00:22:03.97 --> 00:22:05. that far away from her, it looks like there's, a a 00:22:05.68 --> 00:22:08. decent distance between her and that statue behind 00:22:08.27 --> 00:22:08. her. 00:22:09.98 --> 00:22:12. When your lynn starts to get longer and you have to 00:22:12.73 --> 00:22:15. start stepping back, it looks like everything else 00:22:15.52 --> 00:22:19. behind her becomes closer. Better example. Oh, he 00:22:19.74 --> 00:22:23. could. Castle, bride and groom, teeny tiny, twenty 00:22:23.32 --> 00:22:25. four to seventy at twenty four, look at where they 00:22:25.88 --> 00:22:28. are and look at the background behind them. 00:22:31.08 --> 00:22:34. Two hundred milliliters, same spot. They didn't move. 00:22:34.68 --> 00:22:38. I didn't move, actually stay in the same spot, look 00:22:38.05 --> 00:22:41. at what the background does, here's two side by side, 00:22:42.38 --> 00:22:43. a wider angle, 00:22:44.54 --> 00:22:47. two hundred millimeters changes, the foreground background 00:22:47.69 --> 00:22:48. relationship, 00:22:50.38 --> 00:22:53. twenty four, two hundred. Look at how far away those 00:22:53.96 --> 00:22:55. buildings look from them in the image on the left, 00:22:56.25 --> 00:22:58. look at how close they looked to them in the images, 00:22:58.54 --> 00:23:00. on the right when the image on the right, 00:23:01.68 --> 00:23:04. why is this going to help you, it's going to pull 00:23:04.03 --> 00:23:06. your background in closer, it's going to help you 00:23:06.83 --> 00:23:09. eliminate distracting clutter, you see a whole mess 00:23:09.52 --> 00:23:12. of stuff going on in this image, on the left, in the 00:23:12.13 --> 00:23:15. image on the right, it's cleaner, it's, closer, it's, 00:23:15.1 --> 00:23:17. more graphically interesting that's going to help 00:23:17.57 --> 00:23:20. you when situations are tough. Twenty four, 00:23:22.53 --> 00:23:26. two hundred cinespace. Look at the empire state building 00:23:26.89 --> 00:23:27. behind them. 00:23:29.73 --> 00:23:31. Look, al, I got a lot closer. 00:23:32.28 --> 00:23:36. So, linds, compression and that weird perspective. 00:23:36.51 --> 00:23:39. Shift that's a survival tip. 00:23:41.08 --> 00:23:42. Why do I use the window? I use the seventy two, two 00:23:42.93 --> 00:23:44. hundred ceremonies. 00:23:45.18 --> 00:23:45. Portrait 00:23:47.48 --> 00:23:50. fall foliage. How many times have you heard the word 00:23:50.72 --> 00:23:52. fall foliage in the last six weeks? 00:23:55.58 --> 00:23:58. Que dest first look ever in the entire world why a 00:23:58.75 --> 00:24:01. seventy two, two hundred situation like this because 00:24:01.08 --> 00:24:02. I want to pull those trees up behind him because I 00:24:02.94 --> 00:24:04. want to make it look like that background is really 00:24:04.72 --> 00:24:07. close to him because I want to minimize every single 00:24:07.47 --> 00:24:10. individual little leaf and I want to have it create 00:24:10.25 --> 00:24:13. a cohesive sort of watercolor background I think it's 00:24:13.55 --> 00:24:16. distracting if the leaves in the background arm or 00:24:17.1 --> 00:24:20. sharp maurin focus isn't it to eight this isn't one 00:24:20.52 --> 00:24:23. eight this is it a four it looks like this because 00:24:23.15 --> 00:24:25. I'm not two hundred millimeters so when you think 00:24:25.43 --> 00:24:27. about your focal length and you think about your f 00:24:27.21 --> 00:24:29. stop and how it changes the relationship of subject 00:24:29.4 --> 00:24:32. to background these are all little tools to keep in 00:24:32.91 --> 00:24:34. your doomsday prepper shed 00:24:35.5 --> 00:24:36. alternatives to this lens 00:24:38.7 --> 00:24:41. so the nikon seventy two two hundred to eight is twenty 00:24:41.45 --> 00:24:44. one hundred dollars the f four is fourteen hundred 00:24:44.54 --> 00:24:48. dollars those air still pretty pricey lenses tamron 00:24:48.89 --> 00:24:51. makes a seventy two two hundred to eight at fifteen 00:24:51.66 --> 00:24:55. hundred dollars that's not so bad sigma makes a seventy 00:24:55.2 --> 00:24:57. two two hundred it's not a two nine guys sorry it's 00:24:57.79 --> 00:25:01. a two eight there is no such thing at twelve hundred 00:25:02.3 --> 00:25:04. and takina makes a seventy two two hundred millimeter 00:25:04.61 --> 00:25:08. f four for nine hundred dollars. So maybe you pick 00:25:08.94 --> 00:25:11. up one of these lesser price lenses. You work with 00:25:11.23 --> 00:25:13. it for a while if you love it. If it helps you in 00:25:13.34 --> 00:25:15. difficult situations, maybe you keep it because you 00:25:15.93 --> 00:25:18. love it. Or maybe you sell it and you upgrade there's. 00:25:18.59 --> 00:25:20. Nothing wrong with that. And I just wanted to show 00:25:20.64 --> 00:25:23. you that there's, different levels at which you can 00:25:23.63 --> 00:25:24. go at this lens. 00:25:26.4 --> 00:25:28. But a quick note about buying used here. 00:25:30.57 --> 00:25:33. Make sure the seller is reputable if the deal seems 00:25:33.25 --> 00:25:36. to be too good to be true it is too good to be true 00:25:37.9 --> 00:25:41. if somebody texts you and says I am hearing impaired 00:25:41.2 --> 00:25:43. I will sell you seventy two two hundred I will send 00:25:43.3 --> 00:25:45. you more money and then I want you to send the rest 00:25:45.39 --> 00:25:48. to my planner you're being scammed like it is the 00:25:48.43 --> 00:25:51. same scam we get day in and day out if the seller 00:25:51.91 --> 00:25:53. doesn't seem reputable if the deal makes you feel 00:25:53.88 --> 00:25:56. weird if it's some guy on craigslist that wants to 00:25:56.19 --> 00:25:58. meet in a dark alley at night you probably don't want 00:25:58.97 --> 00:26:02. to do that where do I buy used here I buy it at k 00:26:02.65 --> 00:26:04. h b n h and add a rama 00:26:06.3 --> 00:26:08. and again if it seems too good to be true it probably is you also don't have to buy used you khun by one version back there's nothing wrong with that I have the newer seventy two two hundred to eight by the older there's nothing wrong with that so let's say maybe you want that eighty five one four but you don't really have the budget for like a brand new one go to k h and buy one version back and buy it used and you might get a really great deal so I don't ever want anyone to sit there and say I know that these tools would help me survive but they're too much money and I'm not going to buy them you have options questions yeah susan before we move on to light modifiers wanted to check in and see if anybody had any questions about lenses per se and we've got some from online so grab a mic if you have any within this scenario so I'm wondering if you can talk a little bit about way obviously know you love that one point eighty five one point four s o capt meme photos had asked how is so much in focus for one point four or two point eight when I shoot that low I get just one smallest spot and focus solely one small spot isn't focus so do they have anything to do with the distance you are didn't if I'm shooting from here all the way to something that's fifty feet away and I'm shooting at one four versus if I'm shooting you less than ten feet in front of me obviously that's going to make a difference of but part of it is just if you really if you're really nailing focus and how much is going on in the foreground and background like when you looked at those getting ready images yeah there were people in the background there was stuff in the foreground but it wasn't a lot it's not like I went out into the middle of like a forest and put clients fifty feet away from me and shot it at one four that's going to be different so you answer the question forming thank you here no thank you. Any other questions from the internet before we start modifying life let's see is the internet awake? They definitely way are awake I think we had a lot of those questions about the one a versus the one four so what about did you have the one o five in there one of five matthew one of five macro yes on dh it's there was a slide in there about other alternatives extension to all of that just a quick question about that somebody had asked whether you could use a macro lens like that one for non macro type actually you can listen the macro lens is just gonna let you get really up close to stuff that doesn't mean that you can't use it for other things also it's a little slower to focus for me than other lenses but if for some reason I needed something around the hundred millimeter range in my seventy two, two hundred was like far away you could always grab the macro and use it when I used to shoot babies a lot I shot a lot of babies with mac rose you can absolutely use it for other things as well. I just don't. Yeah. And the other one's questions. All right. Well, I want to feed you. Ah, comment susan from britney gonzales who says you're amazing you are literally changing the way that I packed my bags for a wedding, and we're only forty nine minutes into it. I know, right? So there you go, so let's, keep rolling. This is good, and they could buy this and watch this. Is it many times as they want.

Class Materials

Bonus Materials with Purchase

Wedding Photographer Survival Kit Slides

Ratings and Reviews

loveashg
 

I found this course extremely helpful. I own Susan's 30 day bootcamp class and I think that this course is a great supplement to that course. I don't work with an assistant so it was very helpful to see how she would approach a scenario without an assistant. It was also great to see her point of view and thought process when scouting locations for portraits and witness her ability to make something beautiful out of "not so pretty" or difficult locations. It helped me to take a better approach to finding the light, and really paying attention to all of the different details throughout a room. Her business tips were awesome too. I could go on and on but maybe you should just get the course. It's worth it.

Kamera
 

Good and useful course as typical of Susan Stripling; I also own Creative Wedding Photography. However, all the class materials should reside on the Creative Live website -- not just the Power Point presentation. I understand Susan's desire to drive people to her website to increase visibility and sales of her own products, but the strategy isn't very customer-centric for CreativeLive customers. People shouldn't have to "google" the name of her company to find the information that she references in this course; and then once on the website scroll through outdated or unwanted information to find, as she states at her website, "Below is the list of gear (as promised) that I've mentioned on Creative Live." If people are smart enough to find CreativeLive, they'll be smart enough to find on the web any presenter that they like or want to know more about. The folks at CreativeLive ought to address this type of behavior before it sets a bad precedent for future presenters.

Jill
 

I love Susan. She will give it to you straight! I own her "30 days" class and it's amazing but one thing I took away from this course was when she said something along the lines of, "Those photographers who tell you they hand pick their clients are lying to you!" Haha. There are TOO MANY young and arrogant wedding photographers who think they are rock stars. They really get me down. And that's why I like Susan. She's honest.

Student Work

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