Original subtitles

Hey guys,

so this is first video, video one.

Video in the midst of this chaos, this

unprecedented, who knew that this was going to

happen or who foresaw this happening.

It's a little chaotic here, I'm sure as

it is with everyone else and all of

you.

We have four kids home now, which is

nuts until September.

Plus we're in the middle of a move,

we move in six days, move home.

So on the other side of this camera

is boxes piled almost to the roof.

Yeah, so I appreciate all your guys' patience

with me in getting this done.

Some things have been put on hold, other

things are moving forward as is.

So anyway, so thank you so much for

being here guys.

This is weird for me, as any of

you have maybe seen me speak or do

workshops or conferences.

It's always nerve wracking for me to speak.

It's also super weird to just talk into

a camera by myself.

But this video, I am going to go

through some behind the scenes footage that I

captured.

This is Ashley and Nathan.

This was a wedding and elopement I shot

last fall in Washington.

It was super small, super intimate.

It was them and just their kids and

siblings.

It was up in the mountains, it was

foggy.

It was essentially every photographer's dream shoot.

Amazing couple, gorgeous family.

The venue or the location was unbelievable.

You're in the mountains, it's foggy and yeah,

it doesn't get much better really.

So I'm going to go through some editing

stuff.

There's going to be some behind the scenes

stuff.

You'll hear what I'm explaining to my couple

or to Ashley and Nathan to do and

what I want them to do.

I'm going to go as we kind of

move forward in this Patreon and online training.

I'm going to talk a lot about posing.

So your eyes are going to close, okay?

You're going to communicate just by touch.

So like the way you touch each other's

palm of your hand.

And hand placement and where I'm getting my

couples to look and touch.

And the importance of hand placement we'll dive

into in other videos.

But yeah, I wanted to kind of just

kickstart this with some behind the scenes stuff.

Again, like I said, and editing.

I'm going to go through some edits.

I'll explain what I'm doing, how I'm doing

it, why I'm doing it.

And yeah, let's begin.

Thanks again.

And here we go.

So when you guys are touching, I just

turn and face him a little more.

Yeah, your eyes are going to close, okay?

You're going to communicate just by touch.

So like the way you touch each other's

palm of your hand.

The way you touch your wrist.

The way you touch fingertips.

And the reason for the eyes closed.

If you close your eyes, it just feels

different than if you're concentrating on what you're

doing.

You can bring your hands up and up

into your chest there.

So here is a few frames that we're

going to start with.

So I use Roam.

I use my preset Roam with everything.

So how I start every frame is I

just start with Roam.

I use the black steepen.

And then I use shadow screen.

For me, this is always a great starting

point.

It's never, rarely ever, a one click go

through, we're done.

It gets me very close to where I

want to be with the image, but it's

not always right there.

So I start with those three.

So again, Roam, black steepen, and then shadow

screen.

From there, I'll adjust exposure.

I always adjust contrast to taste.

There's no right or wrong.

Default on the preset is plus 20.

I'm usually into 30 to 50, depending.

And then I'll start to play with the

highlights and the shadow detail.

From there, one of the things that I

do quite a bit in my photos is

going to be using the brush.

So I don't just use an exposure brush.

So how I do it is I go

negative contrast, positive shadow.

And I find what it does is it

creates less of...

It's less obvious, I guess, in the image

when I do that.

It allows you to just kind of put

in a pop of light as opposed to

very pinpoint direct light when I find what

happens when you're using exposure.

Primarily so, and then using the negative contrast,

positive shadow, you can obviously adjust how you

want.

So you can see the background and the

trees here gets quite a bit lighter when

you start to go more negative contrast.

And then we can add some shadow.

So again, just start.

And then color temperature, we're going to adjust.

Just come closer together and keep your hands

there.

Actually, I want you to just lift your

chin like you're going to...

Yes.

So one of the things you'll notice in

the video when I was explaining to him

at this point was to bring her chin

up.

So you can see what this looks like

when her chin is down.

And you can see in the video how

that changes when it's just a simple lift

of the chin.

Actually, I want you to just lift your

chin like you're going to...

Nathan, with your right hand, just let go

and just squeeze her into you.

Just lift your chin when he squeezes you,

actually.

Even more, even more.

Squeeze her and lift your chin, actually, right

there.

And we'll come in here again.

We've done the shadows green, the black steepen,

and applied the wrong preset.

Adjusted our contrast, adjusted our overall shadow, and

adjusted color temperature.

So we're going to move to this next

frame.

We have the sun coming in right from

here.

Quite a bit of mist, but you can

see the lines of light here that we

were trying to get right here.

And again, this is where you can see

the difference between a chin up and chin

down.

Lift your chin, actually, right there, yes.

So we're going to edit this one.

You can see the sun just breaking through

right in here.

So again, roam, black steepen, and then shadow

screen.

And adjust.

And again, we'll bring in the brush and

adjust the negative contrast and the shadow from

here.

What I find is when you are brushing

stuff, just don't...

One recommendation I say is don't go so

pinpoint into something, because what can happen is

you can get...

Sometimes you'll see halos around people in the

images, whereas if you tend to almost splatter

light, throw a bunch of light in, quite

a bit wider than what you're trying to

brush, it tends to look a little more

natural than when you start to pinpoint specific

parts of the image.

And again, just understand where light falls.

So if it's coming from this angle here,

you know, it would make sense that it's

going to be bright, bright, bright, bright, and

there's going to be shadow back here.

So you can, you know, start to brush

in light, not necessarily on your subject, but

leading into them so it looks much more

natural in the end.

So again, we're going to bring in some

extra light in here.

Again, not super pinpoint.

Really soft.

Just to bring up some light in that

detail in here, in her face.

And again, adjust color temperature overall.

And so obviously the raw.

And then what we end up with.

Find it just a little warm.

So maybe we can take that and apply

it.

For me, I prefer this with her chin

up because it looks much more connected.

Lift your chin Ashley right there.

Again, just adjusting highlights, adjusting shadows.

To me, I'm always looking for specific things

that are highlighted.

So I don't ever want like everything the

same brightness or tonal range.

I find photos become much more interesting, much

more intimate.

When there's pieces of the subject lit as

opposed to just nice light front, nice light

in the background.

So foreground background light is always, you know,

is the same to me.

I find it's a pretty photo, but it

doesn't have any drama to it.

It doesn't.

So you'll notice a lot of my work.

I'm side lighting stuff or completely black backlighting

stuff to give them a silhouette, you know,

around them or just side lighting stuff to

highlight here, which I'm going to show in

this next image here.

So again, using the light to light specific

parts of the image, which draws the viewer's

eye in.

So again, we're going to go Rome.

Black steepen.

Shadow screen.

And then we can just warm up to

taste.

And bring the brush in.

Impression.

Parts that you want to just emphasize just

a little more.

So from Rafael.

And all we're doing is we're, you know,

we're looking for as we're shooting, we're seeing

what we want lit.

So to me, the emphasis was hands here,

you know, nice bit of light in here

and light in here.

So when we're editing, there's not too much

of a dramatic change in this.

It is more just emphasizing and bringing out

in detail what we already captured in camera.

So we're not hugely manipulating the photo.

We're just enhancing what was already captured.

So I just want that shoulder like you're

almost.

So if you pull your hands in.

And just, yes, like almost like you're curling

your shoulder forward.

Your eyes are going to close.

Yes, there you go.

Just curl that arm even more in your

elbow.

And yeah, there you go.

Yeah.

Just curl that shoulder forward there.

Yes.

Right after the first look, as you can

see, super foggy light, super diffused light.

And I just, again, this line of light.

So it was a good opportunity for me

to just shoot just a really clean, you

know, somewhat moody bridal portrait of Ashley here

on her own.

Again, so for me, you could see the

light was coming from here.

And you can see this line of light

is what we're looking for.

And here.

So let's start with, let's edit.

This one.

Let's edit this one.

Oh, let's edit this one.

Sorry.

Okay.

So here.

Rome.

Black steepen.

Shadow screen.

So even just that, to me, this would

be one of those images that, you know,

you could essentially leave it like this just

with those three clicks.

And to me, the edits pretty clean, pretty

simple.

It's nice.

But what I'm going to want to do

is maybe drop the highlights a little.

Add some contrast just to get more of

that line of light.

And just play with the white balance just

a little.

So, again, you can see brushing in where

the light's coming from.

So it makes sense as opposed to just

this big burst of light on your couple

or your bride or your groom or however

you're editing it is to brush in light

as it comes into them.

So when you're done the edit and you

post or you deliver, it looks much more

natural to have the light.

You basically emphasize the light source coming in

naturally from here to here.

So you can see we really haven't changed

this line.

We haven't emphasized it at all in post.

All we're doing is just adding contrast.

It's already there.

You can see it in the raw file.

It's just emphasized when we go to edit

and we darken some of the detail or

some of the surrounding area here.

This line of light stays pretty much as

was captured.

Just curl that arm even more in.

Your elbow in.

Yeah.

There you go.

Yeah.

Just curl that shoulder forward there.

So everything's going to get tight.

You're going to hug yourself.

Squeeze your arm in here.

Yes.

Chin's going to come up just a little,

just a little.

And then let's just take this edit that

we did here and we're going to copy

it just to this close-up frame.

We're going to have to change the color

temperature here.

So we can see brushing in the light

from where it's coming from here makes it

much more natural than if we were just

to brush in this big thing of light

here.

Let's just show you guys.

So if we were to brush in light

just right on her.

Okay.

You can see a bit of haloing in

here.

So if we were to remove that and

brush in light starting here.

Then adjust.

You can see how that makes much more

sense visually than just having light on this

side.

And we can adjust here and warm it

up a bit.

And even in here, I prefer to actually

have this just a little darker.

But again, removing this.

And I usually just bring down the highlights

a little.

So everything's going to get tight here.

Just hug yourself.

Squeeze your arm in here.

Yes.

Chin's going to come up just a little,

just a little.

Guys, I hope that helps a little.

I hope that is some information maybe for

you guys.

I hope that I explained some of the

process and how I edit.

Obviously, there's going to be way more as

I kind of move forward, as I get

settled here in my move, as, you know,

I get more and more.

I'd love to hear more in the comments

of what you guys are hoping to get

from me.

Again, for those of you who've been in

the workshops, or if you've ever talked to

someone who has been to one of my

workshops, I am completely open.

Like I said, in one of the first

posts I did when I opened up this

account, I am 100% transparent in everything

I do.

I've been doing this for a long time.

I've, you know, made a ton of mistakes.

I've had a lot of ups and downs

in this industry.

I think right now, you know, especially we're

all going through this chaotic time.

But, you know, one of the things, you

know, I've read and for myself personally is

I want to take this time where maybe

we're not shooting as much.

Maybe we're not going to events next weekend

or in two weeks or in three weeks.

But for me personally, you know, I'm going

to try to record as much stuff for

you guys as I can.

So, in this down time where a lot

of us aren't out shooting, you know, we

can grow and learn and, you know, inspire

each other.

But again, I appreciate you guys for being

here.

I thank you so much.

I hope this is a good start for

you.

Again, thanks for having some patience with me

while my life has turned upside down.

And I hope, again, once I get settled,

there's going to be more video, more content.

And again, I want you guys to let

me know what it is you want to

know.

And I'm going to do my best.

And obviously, we'll start going through and, you

know, we'll kind of grow this.

I'll grow this as to what you guys

need from me.

Thanks so much, guys.

Stay healthy.

Stay safe.

And yeah, we'll talk soon.

Thank you.