Original subtitles

Okay, so welcome to part two of our

demo shoot where we've completely changed locations And

now we are in a shitty-ass hotel

room Which is often what photographers have to

deal with so we thought we'd see what

we could do in here in a couple

hours Yeah, now of course typically what we

would be doing in a room like this

is shooting documentary style Actually getting ready things

that happen in the hotel room, and that's

what we're used to but for this We're

just basically gonna say all right.

Let's see in a limited time what we

can pull off What sort of creative portraits

we can make in this challenging space?

Yeah, so it's you know your typical hotel

room low ceilings low light Especially once we

close these blinds and lots of clutter and

distractions and furniture to work around.

Yeah, and Again, we're gonna keep this fairly

demo ish meaning We're not gonna be stopping

and explaining our Techniques and our f-stops

and our shutter speeds and our ISO and

all those settings because we're gonna be breaking

down All these types of shots and all

these tools that we're going to be using

later on in the course What we want

you to focus on here is how we

explore the space the opportunities that we see

in a space like this And how we

use them so without further ado I will

introduce our models which are not models models

real couple that are gonna help us out

for this portion of the shoot And we've

got Sarah and Colleen and Colleen So Again

we met them for the first time just

now and they've yeah, we've never worked with

them before so here we go Okay, so

for the first shot here Come on over

here and Colleen.

I'm gonna get you to stand sort of

right here on the shadow and Facing Sarah

and so you're gonna stand right on the

highlight there perfect And just hold hands for

me Okay, oh yeah, that looks good, and

let's tuck your hair back Yeah, so we've

got this we've got this sheer curtains behind

Sarah so she's on a bright backlit highlight,

and then Colleen has the curtains behind her

so she's kind of backlit But she's on

a dark back.

Okay perfect So now what I want you

guys to do is just get a little

closer with your noses.

There's there you go Perfect and just slightly

touch your noses and give them a little

rub Soft as possible just gentle gentle And

then I want you guys to do little

pecks like little little pecks with your nose

So now

what I'm gonna do is I'm just gonna

open this this up I'm gonna do the

same thing now except this one I want

you really close so your torsos pressed up

against each other okay a little bit more

this way guys Just I want to get

rid of the pain Perfect there we go

and let's get your hands high up on

each other's back Yeah, just like that That's

beautiful And then What I want you to

do is one of you I want you

to put your hands on the other one's

cheek And then I want you guys to

try and touch your teeth together Yes There

we go okay this one what I want

you to do Sarah is I want you

to like try and grab Colleen's bottom lip

with your teeth and pull it Okay Again

then just big laughing smiles they're going in

for a kiss But not quite kissing touching

teeth there we go Sarah can you put

your hands back?

Yes, Sarah Around Colleen's head and sort of

like like Like that yeah, so Colleen you're

gonna have your hands up here like this

and then Sarah you're gonna have your hands

like that, and I just want you to

sort of Grab each other's foreheads together Actually,

let's get your no now.

I want you to switch, so you're you're

gonna go up her back And then it's

forward to forward let's just tuck your hair

back Perfect

and then hands down Colleen down her back

Okay, this is beautiful, so just forward to

forehead and just stay with stay there.

I'm just going to Quickly fiddle with your

hair And then just close your eyes like

you had them That's beautiful And then I

just want to see your teeth Yeah Perfect

okay, I got it The

cool thing anywhere you can put your eyeball

you can put your lens so All right

so Sarah Colleen I'm gonna get you just

move into the middle of the highlight and

Then come away from the curtains a little

bit care right there actually no back right

to the curtains Yeah, yes That's the spot

okay, so now You guys can just cuddle

there while I oh, that was cool hang

on Hang on.

How did I do that?

What was it focus up here?

Oh?

This is cool.

Okay.

Go in for a kiss Okay Wow Just

wide open at 1.4 way out of

focus, and they're like these alien blobs Cool

I got it up the aperture bit.

I'm just gonna play with this because this

is cool And then I'll see if I

can do that oh yes Okay You guys

are perfect right now.

I like this is out of focus silhouette

Okay Got a little mirror here Yeah, can

I grab the 35 Erica?

Okay, that's cool.

Yeah 35 looks better for this sometimes I'd

say actually the majority of the time we

have one of these round mirrors in our

camera case Just for opportunities like this.

Yeah, little pop-up makeup mirrors helps with

the composition When we can't seem to crop

or frame something out of our photo like

in this That's cool Okay, so let's go

like right squeeze in nice and close at

the hips Sarah Maybe try draping one arm

kind of over Colleen's shoulder There there we

go now I got quadruple So

for this next shot I'm gonna actually close

these blinds and eliminate all they and not

all the ambient light But most of the

ambient light in this in this room Just

so I have a sliver of light coming

in because as we mentioned in the studio

section You know, the absence of light is

just as important as the presence of light

and we often forget that as photographers.

So I'm gonna make some absence of light

Close this Just so there's a tiny little

sliver coming in right here and Colleen you're

gonna stand right in that sliver and you're

gonna face face your face towards the light

there Yeah, just like that and then Sarah

I'm gonna get you on this side With

your back to her and you're gonna be

looking over towards maybe right around there So

Colleen is gonna be lit by the window

Sarah Is gonna be lit by the flash

here So I'm gonna set my exposure first

for Colleen's face Okay, I'm

just gonna turn this down a bit I'm

trying to get the light to hit this

side of Sarah's face Not the broad side

of her face.

Okay One more test out here and then

you guys gonna make it real Just making

little micro adjustments to this flash because I

don't love the way it's falling Now we

got the flash settings right so why don't

you guys hold hands for me there Yeah,

just that one hand and then I want

you sort of to without taking your face

out of the window light Colleen I want

you to lean your head together That's right

and then big laughing smiles there Awesome and

big laughing like give me a big fake

laugh Okay good, oh there's a cute adorable

I'm gonna try one Just without the grid

And the reason I'm doing that is just

because it's bit lights very hard On Sarah's

face right now, which is actually kind of

what I'm going for But I want to

just see what it looks like a little

less hard Okay, guys, one, two, three make

it real make it real.

There we go.

Perfect and Sarah look a little bit towards

Colleen, but not quite.

There we go.

Yeah Yeah, and I'm just gonna make it

a little less hard I Can again you

guys are getting good at this, okay I'm

gonna do one more just where I'm just

experimenting with different angles This is kind of

what it looks like in real life with

landing.

I don't actually know what we're doing We

just kind of experiment until we get what

we like Okay,

okay one more and go I Get awesome.

Okay.

Got it Let's have you switch

spots actually, so sir, you'll go here and

you'll face the light Yeah, and then you're

I'm just gonna get a silhouette of you.

So you're gonna be like here But facing

that way I'm gonna put Gonna make a

canvas on which to silhouette you.

What's that?

I think it was better with the grid

Yeah on those ones right because the light

was hitting the walls Oh Little bit that

way.

Yeah Yeah, and can you move out of

my shot now we don't want the Lanny

silhouette in there Okay a little bit closer

Colleen to Sarah yeah and money can you

move the flash accordingly?

Oh, yeah You Actually, that's really neat, okay,

so Colleen you're just a silhouette So you

don't have to show me too much emotion

because you're just a silhouette that you do

so you're gonna have to give give Me

that really good fake laughter that you just

gave me which was actually perfect Perfect and

actually Colleen you can laugh too because I

can't see if you do a big wide

open mouth laugh like With your mouth open

again, Sarah you lean slightly over my camera.

So Slightly the shoulder down it's gonna feel

weird.

Yeah, but like look at me.

So you're kind of like this I just

want you to look kind of like that

Yeah, there we go, there we go feels

weird it's good Okay, it's basically so that

your heads the closest thing to me as

opposed to your shoulder Okay, and then when

you laugh like this Yeah, I can actually

get it cuz it's a silhouette.

Let me move the flash slightly this way

Slightly this way the flash towards me.

Yeah Perfect.

Okay ready?

Okay, three two one Those are cute.

Okay, really good.

Okay, we're good So

for this next shot, I've scouted out something

in the bathroom I'm gonna see if I

could make it work.

So come with me and I'll show you

what I saw There's this this artwork and

so right away I'm thinking because it's glass

covered artwork I know that the glad the

surface of the glass has potential to reflect

and I can see that Just by looking

at it with my eyes.

I can see all the highlights these hot

lights are reflected And so what I'm looking

for first is to figure out if I

can get it to line up, right?

So if I can position them and I

realize the only place where they're gonna pop

within this artwork is within a dark part

of the Art, okay, so they're not gonna

pop up here, but there's a couple little

dark sections in which I could You know

create a bright spot essentially just in which

the silhouette Okay, so I'm basically kind of

eyeballing it and trying to figure out well,

where would I have to position them?

relative to my camera To have them reflected

within the dark part of the artwork and

so to figure that out basically, what I

what I what I did is I grabbed

a flash and I actually started by just

turning on the modeling light There we go.

So then now that gives me something that

I can see so Eyeballing it.

I know it's somewhere over here So what

I'm gonna do is I'm gonna basically aim

this bright spot Up into the wall and

then move into position and try to eyeball

where my camera needs to be and if

that's gonna work And Okay, so now I'm

seeing the bright spot.

I've got two options.

I think I'm going to use this little

dark part here All right, so that's about

where I need to go So I'm gonna

go basically reposition that flash and I'll leave

the modeling light on so that I can

focus on them I'll get the camera all

dialed in and we'll see if we can

make this work probably right about here Let's

just try and see it what that looks

like go like penguins face to face to

start with nose-to-nose Yeah, that's good

and then Colleen will just tuck that back

because I want nice side profiles here Now

the trick is I have to have a

light source on the artwork So which is

why I'm gonna leave the bathroom lights on

here Otherwise, it's gonna be too dark.

And the other thing I'm gonna need is

a high enough aperture Because I'm gonna focus

on the reflection I need a high enough

aperture so that can actually appreciate the artwork

if I go wide open.

It's just gonna be blurry Beautiful hotel artwork

beautiful hotel artwork.

Okay now because of that modeling light I

can see them I can see their silhouettes

so I can basically with my eyeball figure

out about where I need to put my

camera and The 50 millimeter lens is about

the right focal length here.

Okay, so so now I'm gonna turn on

my flash Okay, I'm positioning the silhouette focusing

on the silhouette Here we go test shot

one That fire Erica.

Yeah Okay, so Colleen are you able to

take like half a step backwards?

Yeah, and then Sarah you go with her

Yes.

Okay now that's better Okay, yes Erica

let's let's put a gel on that flash

like a really warm gel okay, so now

we've got a really warm gel on there

and that should Balance out the color temperature

with what I'm seeing in the artwork the

reds and the oranges the other up the

other option would be To go opposite direction.

I could go like a blue Counteract, but

I think the monochrome might be good here

Okay Now I want to try one more

thing, so let's do Colleen you stay there

and Then Sarah you come into the bathroom

here And stand right underneath this Okay, yeah

and then turn to face me, okay See

like okay back up a bit Sarah and

then actually if you do like a squat

Yeah, here we go and Colleen just turn

so your side profile to be a bit

more.

Yes right there and let's both laugh.

We're laughing Okay, good perfect, okay stand up

just relax oh I'm in the reflection a

bit.

Hey, let's try again Okay into position Sarah

deep knee squat and it just back up

that way a bit and we're laughing side

profile Colleen Good good good.

Okay.

Let's see Is this worth it Lanny, ah,

I don't know and into position Sarah Little

lower and Little lower and back that way

Little lower Okay Okay Here we go And

up to the light Yes, okay Okay We

got it Who cares?

Who cares exactly a Lot of the

shots that we're doing in this hotel room

are We're demonstrating techniques that we've never normally

pull out on a wedding day Especially for

portraits and we're just doing it for the

sake of doing it We're doing it to

demonstrate the technique and to show you what

can be done right in challenging situations, but

it's They're kind of ending up with lifeless

photos as a result because they're focused on

the camera technique Instead of focused on the

people that were photographing.

So I just wanted to reiterate that Before

we continue this shoot Yeah And and also

the importance though of learning the mechanics of

how to pull this off in a contrived

scenario Right with static pose portraits where you

can maneuver your subjects and you have control

over everything It won't necessarily result in an

awesome photo But you're going through the learning

curve of figuring out the mechanics to the

point where it kind of becomes second nature

Muscle memory that way when the when the

narrative dictates the tool, right?

it's such and such is happening in such

and such a scene you're like, ah, this

is where a Silhouette or a reflection could

help me make this tell this story the

way I want to write for example But

what Lani was just doing in the bathroom?

Is that going to be a valuable picture

for the couple?

are they gonna want to blow that up?

No, it's a Reflection of them in shitty

hotel artwork like nobody really wants that but

learning the tools and techniques to be able

to pull it off There means that maybe

the bride or the groom or whoever is

getting ready in their child home childhood home

and one of the walls is full of

pictures from his childhood and Or maybe one

of the walls has a picture of his

late grandfather on it who he's really missing

on his wedding day or something Like that

that would be an example where it would

make sense to use a tool like this,

right?

Because it further defines the story and it

further defines the narrative in this case We

are letting the tools define the narrative which

is pretty much the exact opposite of what

we want to teach But we're doing it

anyways and in doing so we're increasing our

language of photography, right?

It's giving us more tools up our sleeve

for when the right time and place calls

for it.

Yeah So I think we're being long-winded

enough.

So we're gonna go on to the next

lifeless gimmicky tool now Susan Colleen come on

over here Okay, so you guys have seen

this window before I Had it with the

drapes open.

I like I liked it much better with

the drapes open but we're gonna try it

this way so I'm gonna have you guys

stand right under the light and We're gonna

do like a little Backward spoonish.

So you're gonna put your your shoulder into

her chest area and then you're gonna bring

this this hand Oh, well, actually just going

what would what would be a natural sort

of cuddly position for you guys Yeah, that

looks pretty good And then what I want

you to do is tilt your head up

to the light.

Okay, so that's great now Could we somehow

get your upper hands?

More Yeah Yeah, yeah, I like that.

Okay, and then Colleen you're gonna just sort

of rub your nose on Sarah's temple Perfect

and give her a kiss on the temple.

There we go So stay there for me

And a little soft little smile there Sarah

A little giggle with your teeth And then

Colleen when you're when you're in on her

temple there.

I want you to try and touch your

temple with your teeth.

Yeah Awesome, okay good nailed it All

right, so this next shot I've got them

in the darkest area of the room here

So I intentionally chose this spot because it's

very dark and whatever light there is on

them Whatever natural light there is on them.

I'm gonna kill I'm gonna kill all the

natural light and I'm just gonna use two

flashes So you guys get into your penguin

position here and come a little bit forward

maybe right about here Yeah, and then together

at the hips giving each other hugs.

That's right perfect and then Lanny Can you

guys see me back here Lanny's gonna stand

back here with two flashes And the reason

he's standing back here is I want to

light the short side of their face So

I want to light this side of Colleen's

face and I want to light this side

of Sarah's face so Lanny's gonna sort of

come in with a flash at this angle

on Sarah's face and This angle on Colleen's

face and a bit of that lights gonna

spill around to the front as well That's

gonna be tricky for positioning I'm either gonna

have to hide the flashes behind the walls

or behind their profiles Otherwise, I'll just try

Well, you've got grids on and he's got

grids on the flashes two grids If we

didn't have grids it would it would very

much the light would bounce off and it

still might do this I don't know.

The light is gonna bounce off all the

walls and destroy our ambient exposure.

So Okay, so let's let's just give it

a shot.

So my right hand light is That's pretty

cool this this flash is aimed straight to

Sarah, uh, let's let's flashes is a Can

you guys move forward a little bit?

And the reason I'm moving forward is because

some of that flashlight is spilling Right here

walls just that one that one's not that

one is but that one's not okay.

That's good And Lanny, can you stack your

head down?

Okay, good guys good see here That's good.

Okay.

Now I'm gonna do something funky I'm gonna

put a pink gel in one flash and

a blue gel in the other just for

fun This is actually really cool But

don't point the flashes towards me pointing a

little bit angled there more yeah, and then

that's good Or message.

Yeah.

Okay.

Yeah, I'm gonna go He's gonna try one

with 85 Okay, so

this hotel room happens to have this funky

art piece on the wall that has been

like drawing my eye because it has Shiny

flat surfaces on which to reflect and it

only takes a little bit of exploration to

see where the potential is Exploring around with

my eyes.

I see.

Oh, there's the bright spot in the room,

right?

and so I can basically the silhouette reflects

in this panel and Or if I go

down here it reflects in this panel really

nicely Okay, so I'm basically gonna try to

fill the frame with the artwork and include

the silhouette reflected in there So sir and

Colleen assume the position Penguin pose start there

for now Okay Okay, so it's tricky to

get myself out of it They're gonna get

your curls out.

Yeah move move this way Yeah a little

bit more Okay, he used a bigger lens.

Oh This is good.

And then just come off of the sheer

curtains a little bit.

Yeah.

Okay right there All right Okay,

let's try draping the arm over the shoulder

see what that looks like Either yeah.

Oh, that's good with the hand, especially when

you did that kind of dangly finger Just

when you draped it over how your fingers

just kind of fell in fact, maybe just

do it again Yeah Yeah, that's good and

Not quite side profile perpendicular to me so

just wrote yes.

Yeah, just like that and Do the do

the drape the fingers over again let him

fall Okay, cool.

Just stay there.

This is way better Okay, that's great and

I'm gonna switch back to the 16 to

35 here too because I want to try

this reflected Okay,

good All right Okay,

so what I'm seeing here what brought me

down to this is I really love the

hand the emotion in the hands and I

Love bare feet.

I got like a little bit of a

foot fetish Except for my knees feet my

knees feet are disgusting, but your feet are

cute So we're gonna include them in the

photos.

Um, and I really like the reflection on

this table so what this is gonna allow

me to do is is make the top

of the photo and and the the main

part of the photo their hands and their

feet, but then I'm gonna reflect their faces

and hopefully get Their emotion within the reflection

It's really cool because I can include these

feet these hands and then I can see

Sarah's three feet through the glass top table,

so It's my foot fetish really likes this

Yeah more and then can you just hand

hold it for me kind of Right a

little bit more this way so it's right

on their faces I might need to put

a grid on it because I don't want

it on their hands that much Let's give

this a shot Yeah, okay, can you put

a grid on that yeah, and then just

hold it those grids are really thick It's

still hitting their arms What if you came

in over here Yes, or and do the

thicker grid On it You can stack it

if I flag it and it's too too

high and Just little little gentle smile, but

nothing intense.

It's very kind of like savoring this very

special moment where you're pretending on a couch

And flagged off their arms Oh

No, no, I just got to reposition it

I wasn't flagging it and lean forward a

little bit guys Yeah, it's just this this

is reflecting a highlight But it was that

down.

Yeah, it's just it's a lot.

What if what if you come from this

way?

Then you got Yeah, I could try that

No, it's over It's not quite working.

I don't know how to problem-solve the

highlight in the room up there.

So You just go dark on the ambient

And then we can always turn the flash

up Oh except their feet are ambient, right?

Yeah But I'll try I'll try so I'll

turn the flash up a touch I don't

leave the flash It's weird because that reflection

does not show up in my shot at

all Which is why I'm wondering if it's

the flash that's bouncing off the oh Yeah,

I might be bouncing off the ceiling I

Think the flash is bouncing off the ceiling

So, can you just stack one more great

on those highlights see that highlight in the

back?

That's the flashlight hitting the wall So two

grids two big grids And lean forward with

your heads a little bit perfect Yeah, okay,

okay, we'll see what we can do with

it Okay, so we're gonna finish off this

demo shoot getting rid of all the gimmicky

tools that we've demonstrated to you guys and

just going real simple and Frankly, this is

probably gonna be our favorite shot and it's

actually something that we saw organic authentically happening

They were together on the couch looking at

their phone sharing a moment I was like

put the camera up get that cuz that's

that's gonna be the shot.

This is the genuine, right?

So we just we just want to finish

on a really simple shot.

That's just really about them and Their relationship

back to basics back to basics.

Okay, so cuddling guys just like you are

okay, so what I want you guys to

do is just cuddle up there just how

you are and I want you to take

turns just Telling each other why you fell

in love with each other and you can

just whisper to each other whispering each other's

ears Yeah, we don't have to here.

Yeah, I I fell in love with you

because Okay

It's okay we can hear Okay, just give

you guys just give each other a snuggle

there Perfect Great okay, we got

it Okay, you guys did an awesome job.

We are done.

That is a wrap.

Yes Even though I'm still shooting It's a

wrap for sure Good job.

Good job guys Thank you