All language subtitles for 9.03 - How to kill it on the Dancefloor

You ready for how to kill it on

the dance floor?

Let's do it.

Let's do it, okay.

Okay, so we're going to answer one question

here.

How to kill it on the dance floor.

Fasten your seatbelts, guys.

We're going on a wild ride into the

sweaty thralls of the dance floor.

Good morning.

Okay, this presentation contains some scenes that might

be offensive to some of you, okay?

Not suitable for all audiences.

So viewer discretion is advised.

Alright, so here we go.

Five essentials for killing it on the dance

floor.

Now, before we talk about how to rock

the dance floor, let's talk about why even

bother.

Who even cares?

Because if you can't answer those questions, you

can't pull off the how.

So, who cares?

Your clients.

Their families.

Their friends.

And their future kids.

Why?

Because it's real.

It's as real as it gets.

And that's the best part about being a

wedding photographer.

We get to photograph what happens on the

day when all their guards come down.

When emotions run their highest.

When they're the least reserved.

And when are they the most free?

On the dance floor.

The music mixed with alcohol.

Oh boy.

That's when you see their real spirit.

Because it's one of the purest, most honest

ways that we as photographers can capture what's

inside.

In the midst of it.

With the bass in your bones.

The lights in your eyes.

The heart in your chest.

The tequila on your lips.

The cleavage in your face.

It feels indescribable.

If they're going to give us that, it's

our duty to immortalize it for them.

So how?

With these five essentials.

So number one.

Get up in that shit.

It's the golden rule of shooting how it

feels.

These aren't strippers by the way.

That's her best man.

And her groom.

And a groomsman.

If you want to feel it.

If you want your audience to feel it.

You gotta be up in it.

Amongst it.

Not shooting at the action.

But shooting in the action.

How close?

That's up to you.

For us, we want our photos to give

you a physical reaction.

We want to make you smell it.

Maybe not smell this.

We want to make you taste it on

your tongue.

Feel it dripping.

Okay.

But the best way to describe the power

of getting close is to talk about wildlife

photography.

So typical wildlife photography is done with a

400-600mm lens from far away.

And you can see the majesty of that

lion or that elephant or that cheetah.

You can see its beauty.

I'm going to put a link to this

photographer that takes these up close pictures of

these wild animals with a GoPro.

And the physical reaction that you get from

these photos is completely different.

You can feel the breath on your face.

You can smell the dead carcass on their

breath.

So be that GoPro.

Put yourself in that lion's den.

Get in there with your 35, with your

24, with your 16 or even, God forbid,

your fisheye.

You know, the drunker they get, the wider

your lenses can get.

Now for us, generally, always, actually, pretty much,

we're at 16mm.

We got our 16-35mm at 16mm on

the dance floor.

And with that focal length, there's really no

other option than to be right in there.

The only way to fill the frame is

to have that camera one meter from the

action.

And the only way to have our cameras

one meter from the action is to be

part of the action.

Physically.

Moving, smiling, bouncing around, belting out the lyrics,

dancing along right beside them.

If they're in costumes, we're in costumes.

Because the only way to get in their

close is if they allow us in their

close.

And the only way they're going to allow

us in there is if they feel as

though we belong.

And the only way they're going to feel

we belong close is if, A, we look

and act like we do.

And B, we've been close all day.

Not hiding on the sidelines.

Shooting at the action instead of in it.

Like an outsider, a vendor, a professional.

We don't want to be professional at all.

Oh, we want to be professionals, but we

want to be friends with cameras.

Yes, we don't want people to think of

us as the professional photographers.

Right, the hired help.

Exactly.

But if we've been close all day, like,

we're talking razor close.

Winning their trust.

Acclimatizing everyone to our presence.

Acting like friends with cameras.

And not just acting like friends with cameras,

but being friends with cameras.

You know, one of the guys, one of

the girls.

Setting that precedent.

They won't only let us in, they will

welcome us in.

They'll bare their souls like no one's watching.

And sometimes, they'll bare their chests.

And if you're really lucky, they'll bare their

asses.

And their crotches.

If you're lucky, if you're lucky, it will

stop there.

But if you're not so lucky...

Because if you are one of them, it

makes all the difference.

You can have the craziest dance party, the

wildest people, the sickest light, the best autofocus

system ever invented.

But if you're not up in that shit,

forget it.

So that's number one.

Get up in it.

That's where the gold is hiding.

Okay, number two.

Okay, it's no secret.

You guys already know this about us already.

We shoot a lot, right?

This is a very hot topic on the

forums right now.

People are righteously offended by the number of

frames that we take at a wedding.

But if there's any time we're spraying and

praying, it's on the dance floor.

And we have no problems admitting that.

Because there's so many things out of our

control on the dance floor.

You know, Michael Jackson recorded 127 takes for

Billie Jean.

That doesn't make Billie Jean any less special.

Or Michael Jackson any less legendary.

Do what you gotta do to make it

great.

For us, that means shooting the shit out

of it.

Which doesn't mean spraying and praying.

We're shooting...

Although I did just say we do spray

and pray, but that's okay.

Spraying and praying on the dance floor, right?

But we're also shooting with deliberate intent and

purpose.

Strategizing, trying to improve upon every frame.

Yeah.

But we are spraying and praying.

Yes, on the dance floor.

It's this moment-rich environment.

This moment-rich environment.

There's so much out of our control.

More than any other situation at a wedding.

People are flailing, arms are flailing.

Drinks are pouring over.

You know, we don't have control over those

small little variations.

Those small details that make all the difference

in a photo.

Right?

Like the placement of a hand.

Or the cast of a shadow.

Or the flap of her dress.

Or that expression.

Or the focus point, quite frankly.

These circumstances of random luck that strike.

These moments of magic.

When things line up in a way we

couldn't have even predicted and couldn't have even

hoped for.

So we're in it to win it.

With our cameras up.

Buying as many lottery tickets as possible.

So these are all the frames from 10

minutes at a recent wedding.

These are all straight out of camera.

And this should make you all feel a

lot better about your own work.

Hundreds of frames.

10 minutes.

Probably around 10 deliverables in there.

And, if we're lucky, maybe one blogger.

But that flash fired every single exposure.

And the thing is, when the gear works,

we can put 100% of our energy

towards pursuing and improving on as many compelling

compositions as we can.

And if there was ever a moment-rich

environment, it's on the dance floor.

Moments.

Movement.

Emotion.

Action.

Everywhere we look.

Photographers who capture that best don't know more.

They're just working harder.

Physical work.

Perseverance.

Tenacity.

So, get up in that shit.

Shoot the shit out of it.

With deliberate purpose and intent.

And, number three, teamwork makes the dream work.

Despite the shitshow that is Erica and Lani

photographing a wedding together, we do have a

synergy.

Okay?

There's a synergy that's hard to describe, but

it's not hard to attain.

You don't have to suffer through a torturous

20-year relationship to find it.

Torturous.

Also glorious.

Gloriously torturous 20-year relationship.

Okay?

But...

It's more torturous for me than it is

for you.

Oh, believe me, babes.

But...

It is an essential ingredient.

That synergy.

Having that synergy is an essential part of

being able to have the teamwork working for

us.

Okay?

On that dance floor.

Because one of us can focus on just

getting in there.

Filling the frame with the action.

Making interesting, unexpected compositions.

While the other one of us is entirely

focused on making perfect light.

And we've got each other's backs.

And it requires a synergy that comes with

practice.

Kind of like you and I kind of

know what each other are thinking a lot

of the time.

Right?

Regrettably.

So communication, good communication is required.

That's right.

I read you.

Okay.

I'm picking up what you're putting down.

Wow.

That's amazing.

It's almost required.

Good communication.

So good communication, like good communication is almost

always required.

And a simple look usually does the trick.

Yeah.

Where's my light?

This means...

Well?

You totally fucked that up.

Or if a look won't suffice, we do

have some signals.

Okay?

So if I want Lenny to backflash, I'll

go like this.

Or if I want him to take off

the grid, I'll go like this.

Although, realistically, I did promise you guys we'd

be honest.

It's usually more like this.

Or...

Now, the lighter's job is really hard work.

Like really hard work.

And it's probably the more thankless of the

jobs.

It requires skill, and it requires attention to

detail.

But it doesn't require a world-class photographer.

Anybody that can work hard and that you

can trust to work hard and has attention

to detail can be your lighter.

Anyone can do it as long as they're

physically determined and that they enjoy hard work.

So here's a photo.

You can see Lenny's working really hard with

the light.

He's actually doing a one-arm push-up

in this photo getting the light.

Totally am.

Sorry, I just complimented you by accident.

Lenny's working hard with the light to get

the light behind the subject here for me.

Okay, any old random assistant that you've never

worked with isn't going to get the job

done.

You need to have that communication.

You need to have that synergy.

You need to have that trust.

And it needs to be someone that's going

to work fucking hard for you.

Yeah, they have to be in it to

win it with you.

Yeah.

But if you've got someone you trust, you've

got someone you like, you've got someone that

knows how to work hard, use them to

help you make magic on that dance floor.

Which brings us to number four.

If you want it to feel awesome, we

need to light it awesome.

We're going to show you right now six

different lighting setups that we use to light

up our dance floor.

Now, in terms of which one we use,

totally depends on a whole bunch of different

factors.

And it usually takes us four or five

or six songs to figure out which one

we're going to use that night in that

venue with that ambient light, that amount of

space, whatever the DJ is doing with his

or her lights.

All of those factors play in.

And it's basically just tasting each of them.

We try them on and see which one

seems to be fitting best that night.

Yep.

Okay?

Which is why our first dance photos are

never our best shots.

Our first dance photos usually suck.

Yeah.

So our settings are generally ish, and this

is very much an ish because it changes

with every venue and circumstance.

But 1600 to 3200 ISO, 1 over 160th

of a second, and 2.8. And our

flash settings, if we're using the Profoto, are

anywhere from 3 to 4.

Back when we were using the Canon, they'd

be anywhere from about 1 16th to 1

64th.

Okay.

So let's start with the masturbator.

Okay.

Okay.

So basically, this is what we do when

we're all alone.

Okay?

If we're working all by ourselves, and it

works really well, it might not be as

awesome as with a partner, but it gets

the job done.

Okay?

It's good enough with every exposure.

Essentially, what we're doing here is one on

-camera bounce flash.

Right?

That's it.

It's one on-camera bounce flash.

In manual mode, sometimes we'll use the flash

card, and we'll get the bounce card up.

Often, we're just bouncing off the ceiling or

the sidewalls.

Because we have that 16 to 35 on,

even when we're using bounce flash, we're still

a similar distance from all our subject matter

that we're shooting, usually about a meter away.

So our flash power remains the same for

the night.

So we keep it in that manual mode.

And there are a lot of really good

photographers making incredible photos from the dance floor

who do this all the time.

On-camera bounce flash.

Okay?

It's a great bang for your buck.

Yeah.

This is your best bet if you're working

without an assistant.

Yeah.

Honestly, if I had to shoot a dance

floor by myself without Erica, I'd probably just

masturbate all night long until I felt like

I had enough really good shots.

And then I might try swinging for the

fence with some of these other lighting techniques.

All the rest of the techniques that we're

going to talk about require teamwork.

So this is the next one.

It's called the double team.

Okay?

This is when you have the climax happening

in two places at the same time in

two different locations.

Like in this case, right?

We want to light up the bride who's

throwing the bouquet, but we also want to

light up the bridesmaids who are reacting in

the background.

Right?

Without lighting up the entire venue.

So we've got the same on-camera bounce

flash that we had in the masturbator technique,

except this on-camera bounce flash is also

triggering an off-camera flash.

Okay?

And Lani or myself or Lightsand is holding

that off-camera flash on some background action.

This technique, this double team technique, works really

well for bouquet tosses, garter tosses.

It also works really well during the first

dance.

If they're dancing in the middle of the

dance floor and there's lots of great reactions

on the outskirts and you want to feature

the dance and the reactions, it works really

well for that as well.

It's for when you have those two stories

happening at the same time in different locations.

Next up.

We're feeling really lucky.

Then we'll go for the 69.

Okay?

This is the same double action setup but

paired together front to back.

On-camera bounce flash and then one off

-camera flash in behind.

Okay?

Front flash, back flash.

But it is hard work.

Okay?

It is very hard work for the shooter

and especially for the lighter.

Okay?

So essentially what we're doing, as you see

here, is Eric and I are essentially playing

hide and seek.

Okay?

With the camera and the lens, trying to

hide the flash behind the action, behind the

dancer so the camera can't see the flash.

And what you'll notice is the lighter is

having to respond to the photographer.

We want the photographer to not have to

think about light at all.

Just get up into the action and fill

the frame.

The lighter's job is to try to make

that perfect light, to hide the flash in

behind.

And as you see, the lighter is trying

to be as small as possible.

Holding the flash.

Usually holding the flash around your eyes allows

you to see whether or not the camera

can see your flash and see you.

Right?

You're trying to hide yourself and your light.

And we have a lot of misses with

this technique.

A lot of misses where the camera can

see that flash and we get that flare.

And it's also very difficult if the action

is here and I'm photographing the action and

Lani's back lighting the action for me here.

And it moves over to this direction and

I start shooting this.

Lani has to traverse all the way around

the dance floor now.

All the way back to the action over

here.

And as he's doing that, he's covering the

top of the flash as he's traversing the

dance floor.

So first of all, the grid is off.

Okay?

When we go in behind, we take that

grid off so it does wrap around.

And then if I'm traversing, like you just

said.

Yeah.

He covers the flash, right?

Because as he's getting into position, all the

way on the other side of the dance

floor, he's...

If he doesn't cover his flash, I'm getting

these pops and these flares and they're ruining

all my exposures.

But you've got your on-camera.

I've got my on-camera flash so I

don't need that back flash.

But it's nice.

It gives us that 3D effect.

But he's covering it up so that I'm

not getting all these flares.

Once I get into position then, I can

take that off and start adding the kick

light.

Yeah.

The other thing that we've learned is to

take the strap off our camera.

Because if I'm shooting this...

If we're shooting this technique and I'm shooting

this direction, right?

Hold the flash.

Pretend there's like a dance party here.

I'm shooting this direction.

And then all of a sudden, the action

turns towards Lani.

So the dancer turns around to face me

now?

Yeah.

And instead of me traversing around, we're just

like, here's my camera.

Here's my flash.

And then we can easily switch.

Yeah.

Now, common problems with this technique is sometimes,

especially if there's a low ceiling or you've

got a white, bright dance floor, is you

get that backlight is just killing it with

these highlights.

Sometimes, you can counteract it by trying to

flag it off the roof or off the

floor or grab a dinner menu.

But generally speaking, we just switch to another

scenario.

Sometimes, flagging it wise, if the hand is

not enough, if you grab a dinner menu

off a table or something and put that

right underneath, that can keep the light off

of one or the other.

But that's usually our first reason or problem

that would send us off into one of

the other techniques.

So this technique works really well in venues

with super high ceilings or open-air venues,

right?

Because when you have the open-air venues

and you have nothing to bounce the light

off of, you get this very flat light

with this black background, so there's no depth

to the images.

When you have this backlight in behind rim

lighting your subject, it gives that subject a

3D effect in the background, and it helps

them pop a little bit more.

I feel like I lost it.

And I don't even really know the cost

yet.

But every time fevers on my mind remind

my soul that I'm free.

I know I can't go on my own.

You came so I wouldn't have to go

it alone.

You took the long road so you could

show me home.

Found love better than I've ever known.

So now I know that I can say

you are exalted above everything on the earth

that I've seen because I know that my

dreams come alive in the love that you

promised to me.

I'll keep singing your praise and you know

I'll believe.

Okay, so those first three techniques all required

an on-camera flash, right?

On-camera bounce.

These next three do not.

These next three are strictly off-camera flash.

But we keep the on-camera flash, but

now it's acting as a transmitter only.

So we're turning the head off so it's

not firing.

It's only transmitting the off-camera flash for

us.

And when you keep it as an on

-camera flash, often people ask us, well, why

do you use the flash and not the

transmitter?

And the reason is because we'll often switch

between these techniques several times throughout the night

depending on what's happening, if there's champagne spray,

all that sort of stuff.

And once you're really well versed with your

flash equipment, you can switch between these techniques

like that.

But you have to know it inside out

and backwards.

Okay, so let's move on to lighting technique

number four.

Doggy style, okay?

So doggy style is the same as the

previous one we talked about, the 69, except

now we've got the on-camera flash turned

off.

So it's only triggering a backflash.

That's it.

One backflash, backlighting our subjects.

So this works really well in venues with

a lot of ambient light, lots of ambient

light.

Or it works really well...

Because the ambient light is basically replacing that

on-camera fill, right?

Yeah, essentially.

And it also works really well when we're

working with videographers because videographers are often using

that continuous light source on our couple.

Or on the dancers.

Or on the dancers or on the sparkler

exit.

And it's a continuous light source.

But it can be fairly flat, that video

light, especially when it's coming from the direction

of the camera.

And so having just this backlight that pops

and gives a little rim and gives a

little 3D pop to our couple really helps.

Okay, lighting technique number five.

Sideways cowgirl.

I do not actually know what a sideways

cowgirl is.

I just googled sideways sexual positions.

So this is one flash.

And I would say this is probably our

go-to lighting technique.

This is kind of becoming our go-to.

This is probably the one that we use

the most.

And yes, that is a purple dildo that

you can see in that photo right now.

It's one flash coming in from camera right

or camera left.

Yeah.

And what we do for this one, I

mean, you can essentially have...

The lighter can essentially just hold the flash,

right?

And I'm 6'4", so I don't really

have a problem getting it up high enough

to avoid the shadows.

But all night long, or if you're not

6'4", or you don't want to get

that crazy deltoid workout, then we just mount

the flash on a monopod.

In the gear section, we show you the

monopod that we have.

And really, that's just it acts as a

boom.

So we can put that flash up and

save the deltoids.

Also, it allows us to move the light

across the dance floor.

If it's crowded, we can go from way

over there to way over here by just

moving that light, right?

So for this technique, again, for the lighter,

it's really hard work.

You're constantly moving and having to respond to

the photographer.

And the lighter has to watch two things.

So if I'm lighting for Erica, I have

to watch her and pay attention to who

is she shooting, where is the action that

I need to light.

Sometimes on a crowded dance floor, it can

be tricky to figure that out, especially with

that wide 16mm lens.

Dead giveaway for that are the crosshairs, the

autofocus assist beams.

That's the dead giveaway that that's where she's

trying to focus, so that's what I'm going

to aim the light.

The second thing I'm paying attention to is

how that light's falling.

I'm trying to give her the most interesting,

dramatic, edgy light I can, but that's constantly

changing, right?

Not only dependent on her camera, but as

the action is changing, right?

Often you can't go as edgy as you'd

like because you're going to cast a shadow.

So you're basically constantly moving with the action

to try to have the best light falling

on as many frames as possible.

And finally, lighting technique number six, the threesome.

Or when one or two just isn't exciting

enough.

Flashes, that is.

Okay?

So with the threesome, we've got the sideways

cowgirl that we just explained, right?

One off-camera flash coming out on the

side, and we've got two flashes in the

background pointed at the ceiling with some funky

colored gels on.

Sometimes we use red and blue, sometimes we

use purple and blue, whatever.

Whatever matches the wedding, right?

Essentially creating our own uplighting.

Creating our own uplighting, exactly.

Yeah, yeah.

And this works really well when we've got

those really dark black venues where there's no

details in the background, so it's just this

black abyss behind the dancers.

It also, my favorite place to use it

is when we're in white tents.

You know, when you're shooting in a white

tent, you get this nice bounce light, but

when you're trying to go for that sort

of more dark and moody feel, that white

tent reflects all the light, and it's just

this ugly white highlight in all your photos.

By having those uplights that we create on

our own, it creates some interest in the

background that just isn't as blaring.

With the funky gels.

With the funky gels, yeah.

It creates some interest and some color that

isn't just that blaring white plastic.

All right, so to review these six techniques,

let's just have a little fun.

We'll look at some examples here.

See if you can guess which technique is

at play here before we flash it up

on the screen.

And now for a couple tricky ones.

So, you can mix and match these lighting

techniques however, wherever you dream possible.

And finally, last but not least, add the

secret sauce.

And that's where Lanny comes in.

Because if we're going to shoot and compose

for maximum impact, then we might as well

edit for maximum impact.

The artistry and the craftsmanship doesn't end when

we click the shutter.

It's part of what we're paid to do.

They've hired us to capture how that day

felt.

To remember how that dance floor felt.

So, let's bring their photos, their memories, to

life.

How do we do that?

We use Mixology by Develop.

We run the Manhattan preset or Restretto.

Dial in the two-man punch slider.

Then we apply Mixology modifiers to taste.

We apply two-man brushes to taste.

Then, we do everything I'm about to teach

you during Edutopia week.

And let me just tell you guys, that

week is going to blow your mind.

But unfortunately, it means you have to spend

an entire week with Lanny.

And I really like showing you guys these

before and afters.

Because it helps us all feel a lot

better about our own work.

And it shows the magic of post-production.

And it can bring that shit to life.

So, for review, get up in that shit.

Shoot the shit out of it.

Teamwork makes the dream work.

Bring the light.

And here's our six lighting techniques.

And add that secret sauce.

Do that, and you'll immortalize the dance floor.

For generations to behold.

Behind the scenes, real wedding, real dance floor.

We're in Todos Santos, Mexico.

We just finished a big dinner of fish

tacos.

And this is what we're working with.

You can see it's an outdoor, open-air

dance floor.

It's very dark.

The video guys have their cameras cranked with

the ISO cranked right up.

So that you can see us.

And as you can see there, we've got

an on-camera flash on a stick.

And an on-camera flash acting as a

transmitter.

So that way we can experiment with all

the different techniques.

And it's pretty tame out there so far.

They're getting warmed up.

We're getting warmed up.

It was a super fun group.

And keep in mind, we've been working our

asses off.

All up in it with them for like

10 or 12 hours by now.

So they have no reservations about us and

our cameras.

And this guy is quite the character.

He's the groom's brother.

I can't remember his name right now.

So we're just going to call him Kid

Rock.

And this is not the last you're going

to see from him.

By this point, we've pretty much decided that

the sideways cowgirl.

Is giving us the best results on this

particular dance floor.

As you can see, we're getting pretty nice

light.

It's balanced with enough ambient.

And we got there basically just by trial

and error.

Tasting the soup, adjusting the salt.

So where we landed, as you can see,

is 3200 ISO, f2.8. And about 1

100th of a second-ish.

That's slow enough to be thinking about motion

blur.

But because our flash is freezing the action

for us.

We're getting away with it.

There's that edgy angle of light that we're

striving for.

So we're basically going to stick to that

technique-ish all night long.

Now, you're going to notice that we favored

a lot of black and white edits here.

Because the DJ lights, this particular dance floor.

Were giving us some crazy white balance, color

balance issues.

Purple skin, red skin, blue skin.

All within the same frame.

So a lot of the times we just

decided to go black and white and call

it art.

But when the colors work, on some of

the frames, it really works.

Every dance floor seems to have one or

two characters.

Who just kind of suck our cameras right

into their craziness.

And he was one of them.

We actually have to remind ourselves often to

shoot everybody else.

And not just get sucked into always the

most crazy, most dramatic person on the dance

floor.

Make sure we get the variety and document

everyone who's out there as best we can.

Now this guy, as you will have seen

in all the other behind the scenes chapters

from this wedding.

He was their wedding commissioner.

He's the guy's, their friend, who married them.

And his ceremony was just awesome.

Getting down low and shooting up when they're

looking down.

You can see I'm obviously belting out the

lyrics there in the background.

And then getting up high and shooting down

when they're looking up.

Oh, there's the bride.

That's Shannon.

And then there's the groom.

Beside her in the background there, right behind

her head.

That's Ian.

And Shannon and Ian have got dance moves.

As you're gonna see.

So one of the things you're gonna notice

is that Eric and I are kind of

continually checking in with each other.

Checking the light.

Checking our settings.

And also frequently taking turns.

Alternating between shooting and lighting.

Because each of those jobs is equally taxing

and thankless.

And we find switching it out every couple

songs kind of helps us, you know, be

in it to win it.

Now speaking of characters.

This is one of their friends.

That's what he wore all day long.

Including the ceremony.

He was awesome.

He was a lot of fun.

And he danced like nobody's watching.

Alright, so now they're starting to let loose.

Eric is telling me that she's gonna go

up to that balcony up there.

Which we had already scouted out.

And we'd already actually photographed some of the

first dance from up there.

So we knew we wanted to give it

a shot at some point here.

And I'm basically just throwing light across the

whole dance floor.

Kind of winging a prayer there.

We were giving her for like four hours

on this dance floor.

So we got to take some breathers.

And check our settings.

Check our lighting.

Some of the things we're looking for are,

you know, are we close enough?

Is 16mm working?

Is it too wide?

How's the light?

Do we want the grid on or off?

Do we want to zoom the head in

or out?

Do we want to change the gel?

Adjust the distance?

Or turn it up, turn it down?

So these are the micro adjustments that we're

eyeballing on the back of the camera.

And adjusting accordingly.

That's mom there.

I always shoot moms, dads, grandparents if they're

out there.

We'll often rate the moments in our mind.

In terms of where should we shoot.

Especially on a moment rich dance floor.

With stuff happening left, right and center.

Who do we want to focus on?

We'll kind of rate it based on which

is the most interesting or crazy thing happening.

But we'll also kind of rate it based

on the people.

And their importance or relevance to our couple.

For example, if it's a friend who's been

going crazy all night.

And we've been shooting him a whole bunch.

But now mom's out for her one song.

We're going to go and we're going to

photograph that instead.

This guy again.

He gave us so much gold.

Getting the camera right down on the dance

floor.

Flip screen really helps with that.

Sometimes we can get some interesting compositions.

Shooting through legs is interesting.

Can be risky.

Got to be careful with whose legs we're

shooting through.

But sometimes you'll get lucky.

We're probably approaching midnight here.

Shirts are coming off.

Fists are pumping.

Look at Erica's face there.

And look how high I'm having to get

that light up.

In order to avoid the shadows.

We're often having to react and move with

the action.

As they're dancing.

We have to adjust the position of the

light.

In order to hit the action.

And avoid casting shadows.

Trying to get in position.

Trying to find the openings.

Trying to find the shooting angles.

Trying to be in the action.

The things we're looking for in terms of

the action.

Are often hands and arms.

If we see somebody who's very expressive.

Dancing the way Ian's dancing here.

Arms in the air.

Hands in the air.

It's just a gift to photographers.

So that's sort of one of the things

that guides us on the dance floor.

In terms of where we go.

Who we're focusing on.

Because often there's just too much.

Here we go.

Now it's obvious where we should be.

16mm for the win there.

We are right in that moment.

Feeling it.

Tasting it.

That fist is inches from the lens.

Now we're starting to get down to the

diehards.

The last remaining friends.

Getting crazy now.

We decided to get a little crazy.

Try something different.

Start experimenting.

So what we did is we tried to

see what would happen.

If we just slowed our shutter down.

And play around with some motion blur.

We dropped the shutter speed.

We slowed it right down to a quarter

second.

And in order to counteract all that extra

light getting in.

We F'd it all the way up to

F9.

And dropped the ISO down to 100.

And then I think we went to one

full second shutter speed.

In F11.

Just to play around.

And we got some interesting frames out of

that.

And there's the last final frame of the

night.

The dance floor is of course just a

tiny piece of what we get to do.

As wedding photographers.

We get to document layers of generations.

Spiritual connections.

Nervous anticipation.

And sheer joy.

Carefully prepared words.

Spoken from the heart.

Lifelong friendships.

Dreams coming true.

And dreams being born.

We get to look for and record the

subtlest of gestures.

Touches.

And unfiltered emotion.

From those with their entire lives ahead of

them.

To those with their entire lives behind them.

And we get to do all of this

in spectacular places.

With people who are wild and free.

And high on love.

And we get to show the unique ways

in which we all see and interpret the

world.

And place minds on the surface of the

planet.

With a single exposure.

And we get to use all of this

to inspire the way we see the world.

And how we live our lives.

And that's pretty fucking awesome.

Thanks guys.

Okay, 3, 2, 1, go!

Okay, we got it.

It's going to track light.

Okay, one more.

Oh, wait.

We've never done anything like this.

And quite frankly, I haven't seen anything done

to this standard.

No, this is next level.

Seriously.

We have not seen this done.

Basically.

But you're going to see what it's like

behind the scenes.

You're going to see what it's like at

an actual wedding.

At an actual shoot.

We're going to be able to show you

so much more about what it looks like

and feels like.

To photograph the way that we do.

So it makes a more interesting composition.

That allows us hopefully to be able to

help accelerate other photographers through that learning curve

that we've gone through.

It's a wedding day.

Sort of 3D.

Oh my gosh.

This is an all-inclusive, everything we got

type course.

We are not leaving anything.

Once they're comfortable with that, then we might

get a little bit deeper.

Here's my camera.

Here's my flash.

It's going to be amazing.

We do not tell them.

You want to feel like we have nothing

else to give.

We've laid it all out.

We've done everything we can to possibly share

what we do, how we do it.

We're at the beginning of something really special

here.