Original subtitles

Hola Patreons, How are you all?

January, 2019.

Let's do this, guys.

I will talk to you about how these 4 images were made

that we had little time to solve

And how you get to a place and get a little scare

because of the conditions of that place

but little by little -if you get relaxed and let things to flow-

you find these solutions that, by seeing this 4 photos,

I was very happy with the final result.

You need to work for it.

Let's first explore the first ones above

This was a mountain wedding.

It was 3:00 pm.

There were no clouds and the sun was hard as fuck

it was something hard to work but here, you can realize that...

that... there is always some backlight.

When I didn't know what to do I told the video guy:

"Dude, do your thing" because he needed to go back

for the party and the audio arrangements,

so I told him: "Ok, you go first, do your thing

and I will start exploring my possibilities."

So, while he was taking his images

-I normally do this backstage to give it to the video guy-

and while he was directing I always ask:

"How open or closed are you?"

I started playing with the 58mm, a little bit far, to not be in his shot

and let him direct them, shots more romantic.

I grab those moments because they are true moments

and they are going to love.

I shared one of these photos, I don't remember which one...

I think it was one of this... something like this, more closed.

And I really liked it.

Here I am capturing the details to tell the story,

I am doing some close ups so everyone is happy.

That they have their traditional photos

with a super hard light

and then I start playing.

Here you start to see my eye; what I am looking for.

Here, the old trick of not showing the ground

to not being so obvious of where we are at,

I always try to do that in the photos.

And here we are in that "first shoot" part of the session.

To forget about the emotions and look directly into the camera

And... she had an incredible gaze

her eyes were black smokey,

I really like that.

Here I started to separate them and to play with the day to day

and with the reality.

And here... the "throw the veil" part.

I always try to avoid that the veil cover the other subject,

-that can be annoying-.

Here, these details... I need to correct and do a cut

and to clone so that they do not appear.

But I want you to see this is a whole sequence.

Here, with the guy... I loved how he looked

Because of the reflect -the light is still the same-

but here we are in a department and the light bounced

I will put it in color, if possible

if not, we will see it in Lightroom...

Here is my real photo,

as I shoot in black & white, the white balance is always up and down

I don't realize what it is doing for me.

Here, I place them where I wanted

and we played a bit with this, with the light bounced and

and a very soft light.

In this photo I missed the exposure, (because of the hurry),

I wanted it underexposed and mysterious.

I didn't do it well but I corrected it later.

As you can see in their faces, they don't know what's going on

and I am trying to get this image that will give me strenght

in my final photo.

So, I did 106 shoots to get to 4.

Four of which I feel proud about and willing to share

We saw all the emotions, the laughs, the romantic and sweet part

and these are the ones I said: Ok, I invite you to enter into my broken brain

and to let the emotion beside and go with the mystery side.

But is about that, to know what you want to do

and little by little achieve that goal.

So, let's check on these 4 images and how they were made

This is the selection I did for you guys.

So, let's see since the photo was imported

and how the final result was reached.

This is the camera output photo

as I have said, I shoot for the potential

to see what's beyond and what can I get from it.

I have been playing with this b&w preset from Sean Flaningan

it's called A Fist Full of Bolts,

(I will put the link here in case you want to try it)

and little by little I start to rescue data

and playing a lot with the gradients (circular or oval).

Something I always do when there are eyes in the shoot

is to do a little gradial to each eye

this is for this information to be catched

so that the eye will call you to where you want to see.

Whenever there are eyes in my shots, I go with those gradients.

I will take it off so you can see how her eyes get illuminated

just by selecting them.

Here I always play with color and b&n.

Attention: when working with b&n

always play with your white balance

that can change the image a lot.

The simple fact of changing to black and white

and white balance will change the image

because you are changing the colors and that will affect the final shot.

I do a cut here so that everything is centered

and I keep playing with my values, guys.

I always export without grain, from Lightroom

and I add the grain in the Alien Skin

in the Alien Skin Exposure, to be exact.

So, this is the photo that came out

and in with the Alien is where I play a bit with

(you'll see here)

I play a bit with the blurs, with the Tilt-Shift

but in post-production. I will add all the grain in post.

Why? Because Alien Skin lets you

be more selective with the grain.

Here I am playing with the grain in high lights and medium tones

and the shades -as you can see- don't have many grain here as the high lights.

So, my advice is to be more selective

and let the grain for later; it is an artistic touch.

Maybe this is the final photo, as you like it to be seen

but I always like to work with the grain after.

For this image, the same....

as you can see in the sequence

I darkened this part to hide the post and the wire that was there

and with that, everything disappears.

I'll go step by step for you to see the effects

I like to active and deactivate the grain

to see the chances I have with the final shot.

The eye will always go to the brightest point

and I am trying to take it all into that point:

that the brightest point stays on them.

As you can see, I always try to keep the sun in the corner

and not being so obvious on where our source light is coming from

so, the attention stays with the guys.

For this shot, the sun is still intense

we didn't have bouncers

but the buildings will always help with that.

This is a departments building,

I started playing with them

I am recovering a step and a half of light

here, you can see the final shot.

Many times, if you see this behind the camera

you get depressed and don't want to keep working

but I always try to work with my photo's potential.

I want to have in my photo as much information as I can

and then I start working on it.

As you can see, I removed the blues.

Here is where I use it: I go to "Color"

and "Desaturation of Blues" when I don't have any skies

otherwise, whites will be invaded by blues very easily.

So, deactive any color that is not part of your shot

because it is very obvious.

Here I started playing with gradients too

and this way call the attention to where you want it to be seen.

I have been playing with different "modes" within develop

I apply my present and then I change the tones

I went to "vivid"; I liked it. I tried b&n; didn't like it.

Then I go with skin tones I want them more attached to my reality

(everyone has their own reality)

be consistent with that.

And I am just playing with tones to see what tone of skin I like,

(which skin tone satisfies me),

and here I came to the final photo.

And this photo, worked in post...

...I cleaned the skin

in this case, as you can see here, it was obvious.

So, I cleaned her, so that she looked more beautiful and cool

and the grain, the same... I added it later in Alien Skin.

I will do a video about Alien Skin Exposure

for you to see my basis and how I get into my solution.

I will share with you the preset I work with in Alien.

But, ok... the photo is almost ready

in Lightroom

and here is where I put this boost and this stregth

that I really like how it leaves the skin tones

and how it corrects some of the dominants.

And the final photo... as I said, I made the mistake of...

of underexpose since the beginning

(is what I do least)

here, because of the hurry. This photo was taken in 1.7

I should have taken it in 2.8 or 3.5

to have that detail, so...

I went correcting the shots, little by little.

Here I underexposed a step and a half (a bit more)

and little by little a came up with this solution.

I started playing with radials, as I said,

radials are my forever friends,

they help me to direct the view of the spectator to where I want

I am always playing with white recovery,

that's an essential point for me.

I chose to choose the boyfriend.

Removing him, too.

Removing exposure in his area.

Until I reached the final point.

Here, as you can see, there is a magenta/pink dominant.

Some people like it. Here is more green.

You can always correct that in the curve.

If you go to RGB... here in Blue or Green...

Here you can correct it. We lower it a little...

and those greens get corrected (let's do this slowly).

So, sometimes I go more magenta, some others more green.

It's a color that, for my eyes, it's captivating.

And that's how we got to these 4 images, guys.

So, the sun and hard light, in this example we used it in our favor.

Here, we used it bounced.

And, in these two final photos, we used it like backlighting.

Like an overexposed and underexposed backlight.

Knowing what our light works for

we can use it in any situation.

Sometimes, we are afraid of hard light.

I invite you to play with it, to practice with it

because hard light is mystery,

is abstract. You remove many unnecessary elements

and it makes a photo become more iconic, you guys.

Well...

Here we continue, step by step.

Thank you Visbons, thank you Patreons.

Let's keep doing this. ¡Éxito!.