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Day 24: Marketing & Shooting - Girl Power Demographic (18-30s)

Lesson 37 from: 28 Days of Portrait Photography

Sue Bryce

Day 24: Marketing & Shooting - Girl Power Demographic (18-30s)

Lesson 37 from: 28 Days of Portrait Photography

Sue Bryce

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Lesson Info

37. Day 24: Marketing & Shooting - Girl Power Demographic (18-30s)

Lessons

Class Trailer

Day 1

1

First 2 Years: The Truth

1:23:37
2

Teaching 2 Photographers in 28 Days

1:10:45
3

Rate Your Business

1:05:08
4

Year One in Business

1:00:34

Day 2

5

28 Challenges

1:21:39
6

Fear

1:04:07
7

Price & Value

1:10:17
8

Checklist, Challenges, and Next Steps

26:35

Day 3

9

Day 1: The Natural Light Studio

38:09

Day 4

10

Day 2: Mapping Your Set and Outfits

1:54:32

Day 5

11

Day 3: One Composition - Five Poses

35:49

Day 6

12

Day 4: Flow Posing

49:31

Day 7

13

Day 5: Posing Couples

55:55

Day 8

14

Day 6: Capturing Beautiful Connection & Expression

40:47

Day 9

15

Day 7: The Rules - Chin, Shoulders, Hands

56:24

Day 10

16

First Weekly Q&A Session

1:00:15
17

Day 8: Rules - Hourglass, Body Language, Asymmetry, Connection

28:39

Day 11

18

Day 9: Styling & Wardrobe

40:50

Day 12

19

Day 10: Shooting Curves

48:40

Day 13

20

Day 11: Posing & Shooting - Groups of 2, 3, and 4

28:46

Day 14

21

Day 12: Posing & Shooting Families

28:36

Day 15

22

Day 13: Products & Price List

56:53

Day 16

23

Day 14: Marketing & Shooting the Before & After

41:20

Day 17

24

Day 15: Phone Coaching & Scripting

52:56

Day 18

25

Second Weekly Q&A Session

1:02:21
26

Day 16: Posing Young Teens

43:02

Day 19

27

Day 17: Marketing & Shooting - Family First Demographic

33:14

Day 20

28

Day 18: The Corporate Headshot

1:05:43

Day 21

29

Day 19: Glamour Shoot on Location & Shooting with Flare

53:56
30

Photoshop Video: Glamour Shoot on Location & Shooting with Flare

11:06

Day 22

31

Day 20: Photoshop - Warping & the Two Minute Rule

1:22:22

Day 23

32

Day 21: Posing Mothers & Daughters

42:22

Day 24

33

Third Weekly Q&A Session

1:31:41
34

Day 22: Marketing & Shooting - 50 & Fabulous Demographic

1:04:00

Day 25

35

Day 23: Shooting into the Backlight

58:22
36

Bonus: Shooting into the Backlight

06:52

Day 26

37

Day 24: Marketing & Shooting - Girl Power Demographic (18-30s)

39:17
38

Photoshop Video: Girl Power Demographic (18-30s)

1:07:21

Day 27

39

Day 25: The Beauty Shot

46:32
40

Bonus: Vintage Backdrop

04:54

Day 28

41

Day 26: Marketing & Shooting - Independent Women Demographic

49:40

Day 29

42

Day 27: Sales & Production

54:30

Day 30

43

Day 28: Posing Men

52:19

Day 31

44

Bonus: Pricing

42:32
45

Introduction

11:36
46

Photography, Style, Brand, and Price Part 1

1:06:49
47

Photography, Style, Brand, and Price Part 2

47:24
48

Marketing Part 1

38:01
49

Marketing Part 2

1:12:04
50

Money: What's Blocking You?

49:15
51

Bonus: The Folio Shoot

52:29

Day 32

52

Photo Critiques Images 1 through 10

23:11
53

Photo Critiques Images 11 through 27

25:01
54

Photo Critiques Images 28 through 45

30:19
55

Photo Critiques Images 47 through 67

36:47
56

Photo Critiques Images 68 through 84

23:22
57

Photo Critiques Images 85 through 105

36:01
58

Photo Critiques Images 106 through 130

34:49
59

Photo Critiques Images 131 through 141

13:45
60

Photo Critiques Images 142 through 167

25:27
61

Photo Critiques Images 168 through 197

29:13
62

Photo Critiques Images 198 through 216

25:51

Day 33

63

Identify Your Challenges

35:06
64

Identify Your Strengths

22:16
65

Getting Started Q&A

22:54
66

Rate Your Business

31:29
67

Marketing Vs Pricing

33:26
68

Facing Fear

23:45
69

The 28 Day Study Group

15:02
70

Selling Points

40:35
71

Interview with Susan Stripling

18:03
72

Emotional Honesty

29:09

Day 34

73

Sue's Evolution

18:36
74

28 Days Review

15:14
75

Student Pitches

11:28
76

28 Days Testimonial: Mapuana Reed

09:02
77

How to Pitch: Starting a Conversation

37:28
78

Your Block: Seeing is What You're Being

35:30
79

Your Block: Valuing and Receiving

37:09
80

Building Confidence: Your Own Stories

20:45
81

Building Confidence: Your Self Worth

36:05
82

Pitching An Experience

34:16
83

Pitching An Experience: Your Intentions

18:15
84

Pitching An Experience: Social Media

30:14
85

Final Thoughts

24:35

Lesson Info

Day 24: Marketing & Shooting - Girl Power Demographic (18-30s)

Today's challenge is definitely one of my also favorite demographics. It's about that young woman between the age of about 18 and 30. She's unmarried without kids, or she's married without children. This is one of the four biggest marketing demographics that we have worldwide. I'm going to show you how I attract, how I shoot and how I market to this girl. Also, this skill is a big couple shoot for me in my studio, so I'm going to show you how I got a 23-year-old couple and did a Calvin Klein-esque modern contemporary shoot with them so that I can show you how to take your folio into that next level to really attract this demographic. Hi everyone, how are you doing today? This challenge is a good one and it's called Girl Power. We're going to be shooting and marketing to this specific demographic. Now remember this, four demographics, we started off with Family First, which is pretty much anybody with a child. A mom goes from the top of the shopping list to the bottom of the shopping li...

st when she has kids. And who's shopping demographic is based around her? Shopping for her children first and her shopping around the hours of her children and the lifestyle of her children. She's the big Internet researcher, she's the one who's more likely to spend money on her kids than herself, okay? The second demographic we addressed is 50-plus, 50 and fabulous. 50-plus, my favorite demographic to shoot. So when we did our Family First demographic, we broke down the marketing into five pieces of paper. Then when we did 50 and fabulous, we broke it down into three. What we were trying to do when we break them down is to create a marketing avenue on every one of those subjects. So Girl Power is very much like elegant portraits or 50-plus, it's just for the younger girls. The 50-plus demographic often comes in on her own. Every now and then I would photograph that demographic with a partner, but very rarely. And very rarely does the 50-plus do the group girl thing. That's more the 30 and 50s, okay? I'm gonna go through the demographic next. So the Girl Power is very similar to the 50-plus in the sense that she has three strong marketing avenues, okay? So let's look at them, three pieces of paper. Girl Power is anybody from 18 to 30 years old with no children, okay? This demographic is a really big shopping demographic, although one of the smallest spenders. She's about the same as Family First. Not as big as 30 to 50, not as big as 50-plus, but she is the strongest marketing demographic because she is the easiest one to catch. She's young, she's gorgeous, she's 18 to and this is how I make this demographic work for me. Now 18 to 30 years old, she's easy to market to, she's spending about nine and a half hours a week with her urban family. Those are her girlfriends, okay? She's online, she's got an iPhone, she's often still living at home. And if this demographic is living at home, she's often saving for a house. In fact, internationally, this demographic is, right now, very progressive Y gen, shopping for their own home, quite happy for mom and dad to still be paying their rent, they've got really progressive baby boomer or X generation parents that are quite happy for them to stay at home, and this girl often has a great friendship with mom/dad. So she's a really great demographic to market to, and the three avenues I focus on with her is Mother & Daughter. So as soon as I get this group in, this girl ringing me with a voucher, or as soon as I meet this group or if I make girls out or an expo, as soon as I'm marketing to this demographic, the first question I ask is would you like to bring in mom with you? Also, this demographic loves to come in groups of girlfriends, not quite as much as the 30 to 50. But if she's only got two or three girlfriends, then this demographic is gonna be quite happy to come in with her two best friends. So for me, instead of the whole wine and cheese day, I market this as a paint the town red day. Now the 20-year-old wants to go out afterwards. She's not going to have wine and cheese with her girlfriends and then go home to her partner and say, I had the best day with Suzy and Mark. This girl here wants to come and have a shoot done. She's probably got more extravagant clothes, but they're cheaper. So she'll get changed multiple times. She's young, she's cute, she wants to get her hair and makeup done, and then she's going to go out with her girlfriends with her hair and makeup done. So I've always called this come and have a photo shoot, gorgeous hair and makeup, go out and paint the town red, okay; as opposed to the 30 to 50-year-olds, which is more come and do wine and cheese, go out and have a gorgeous dinner party. I know there's a whole lot of older demographics out there going, well, I wanna go and paint the town red too. But traditionally, this is the avenue in which I market to these girls. Also, mother and daughter, paint the town red, couples okay? So today's shoot, I'm gonna take you through a very, very real scenario of a 23 to 25-year-couple. So straight away, as soon as I found out and booked this client, I asked her who she would like to be photographed with, and she said her boyfriend. 23 and 25, living together, okay? So very happily living together, young couple, gorgeous. So as soon as I said that, I said okay, I will photograph you on your own and then I'll take you through some very styly Calvin Klein-esque type couple shots. So those three shoots break out like this. If it's marketed to the 18 to 30-year-old Girl Power and she brings in her mom, it's quite likely she wants mom to pay for it. So I always make sure if I have one makeup artist, I've got one girl in the chair, one girl in the studio and then I switch them out, and then I take together shots of the mom and daughter. If I have two makeup artists and the girls are ready together, I will shoot them simultaneously but individually and then finish with together shots because I find that this demographic want their mom there, they want to have shots with mom and they want mom to pay for it, but the first question they ask is will I have shots on my own? Of course you will, so I make it very clear in my PDF advertising when it first goes out with this demographic. Then what happens is I will photograph them and then I will offer them the Mother & Daughter package that I talked about in Family First. The Mother & Daughter package for me, (chuckles) (mumbles) is offending here, wait. The Mother & Daughter package for me is about selling them a double package for a price and a half, okay? So if my packages is $3,300, then when they come in for the viewing, if mom's paying for that, mom's usually saying I'm going to keep the album and you're going to get the CD, and the daughter's like hmmm, I want an album too. So I realize in that moment that I could double that album or double that folio box for an extra $ and it's just instant profit. That's my Mother & Daughter special. Only for mother and daughters and only if you double the package, not if you're getting different images done, okay? And then the third one is the couple. The couple shoot usually is about that young guy is the only demographic that really wants to sit and watch his girlfriend get her hair and makeup done, okay? The older guys couldn't care less and they often don't stand in the studio 99% of the time. And the Family First demographic, they don't stay either, and neither do the older gentleman with the 50-plus. So this demographic is the only demographic where the young guys are quite willing to stay and watch their gorgeous girlfriends get their hair and makeup done because they're usually so lovestruck and it's such a great demographic to shoot. I wanna take the traditional couple posing that I taught you with Tiffany and Mark and just funk it up a little bit and make it a little bit more Calvin Klein, a little bit more magazine. So today's shoot, we've taken Sherry, we've done some gorgeous individual shots of her. And then as we've gone into the couple shoot, I take you into that Calvin Klein-esque, more sort of you know, grungy, funky, more magazine couple poses, shoot a bit lower, shoot a bit darker. I'll show you how to process them. But more importantly, I have had a Calvin Klein style shot in my studio for 15 years of a couple, a young woman and her boyfriend, and they were both wearing white boxer shorts and she was standing this way and he had his arms around her, and they're both topless but he's covering her breasts and she's holding his hands. And this was by far one of the single most requested images in my studio to date, and it still is. So it hasn't dated at all, this image, and it's still on my website and it's something everybody loves. So keep it really simple, that demographic loves it. So you were trying to hit that Girl Power, you're trying to hit the Girl Power, hit her as a couple, hit her as a young group, go out afterwards, paint the town red; or get her mom in, or do all three because she is an open avenue to do all three. But don't just shoot her on her own. She is one of the smallest buys, you see, because she is the lower income of all four shopping demographics and yet she's the easiest one to shoot. This is a mistake I see a lot of people are making because a lot of people are only advertising to this demographic, and yet she is the smallest buying demographic of all four, okay? So open that up by inviting the boyfriend and inviting the mom. Who is your target market? It is really important with this demographic here that you show her and her girlfriends getting made up, that you do a video of this young group and then maybe walking out of the studio in little nightclub frocks and trying to paint the town red with big hair and gorgeous jewelry. These days, this demographic have access to Diva and all these amazing shots where they can find beautiful jewelry for really, really, really inexpensive, cheap price, they can get this amazing jewelry and they have these incredible clothes and dresses and high heels, and you can photograph them in so many cute, funky ways and do group shots of them together. But just remember, if this is your only target market, that you can open up through other avenues to make more money from this demographic. Okay, again, I've said it with every single marketing and shooting video, this is sold in the consultation. It's all about what you say. If Andrea calls you for a booking, you talk to her and say, Andrea, what sort of shoot would you like? Who would you like to share this with? You're gonna get a very quick feeling on how old she is, okay? You can ask. So you can say, are you married, do you have children? Oh no, I'm only 20. Ask her if she has children. Ask her if she wants to be photograph with her boyfriend. Ask her if she wants to be photograph with her mom. I would ask any woman that between the age of 18 and 50. I wouldn't assume I knew her age by talking to her on the phone. I would just start talking to her, tell me about yourself, where do you work, Andrea? What do you do? Is there anybody you would like to bring into the shoot? Of course you can bring people to the shoot. Would you like to bring in your best friend? Would you like to do sister mom? Would you prefer to be photographed with your boyfriend? Let me send you my marketing PDF and price list so you can see a gorgeous shoot. And just make sure you're creating marketing for this age group, which usually is not a problem. So today's shoot is about Sherry and Monty. It's about taking gorgeous photos of Sherry on her own, which you'll see. It's about taking you through these, which are just sort of modern contemporary Calvin Klein-style images. This image here, as you can see on my slide, is straight out of camera. That's what you're going to see in the shoot today. And then I'm going to show you how I process right up to that really gorgeous Calvin Klein. I also shot on a white background and how I do that gorgeous white background, Calvin Klein style. I love this style of photography. I've been shooting like this for 20 years and it still has not dated for me. Shooting nice and low, shooting up on your clients, using their jeans. You know, telling them I'm gonna shoot you really Calvin Klein-esque. A lot of this age group ask me for skin shots. They'll say, can I have one of those shots where I look like I'm not wearing anything and my boyfriend's got his arms around me? Try and keep hands off boobs and try and put thumbs into jeans and do a Pinterest search, do a Google search of Calvin Klein images. Keep it really funky and young, it always works. Posing contemporary couples for me is a little bit, it's exactly the same as what I took you through with Tiffany and Mark with the traditional posing. It's just shot a little bit lower. And look for hooks in jeans. Wrap hands around butts, you know. Put hands on the body, use the guy's arm against her arm to push his bicep up. Make sure that you've got those really strong modely faces, shooting low, shooting a little bit more contrasty light and then processing. The same way, when we do posing men, when I shoot Russ traditionally, and then I shoot Adam in the same pattern and same posing map, just shoot it lower, shoot it black and white, real Calvin Klein, just make it look a little bit fashion. Have fun with this demographic. Obviously, this is the demographic we all dream of shooting. She's young, she's pretty, she's got lots of clothes, she's often slim, she moves really easily. But this demographic needs to really be opened up in terms of in marketing so that you can make the most of it, because I feel like you'll be really limited if you just stick with this demographic, okay? So look at the avenues that you can stretch out, enjoy it, and enjoy the shoot today. Hi everyone. Now this is my Calvin Klein couple shoot. So as we've been talking about in the marketing of this demographic, I know that I can make two and three times more money if I include her boyfriend and her mom in the shoot. So the whole point of today is opening up this 20 to 30 demographic for you and showing them how I have shot, posed and solved this demographic for the last 15 years. So this young demographic always really into the more sort of pop culture fashion shoots. They love everything Calvin Klein, they always have great clothes, they brought in great clothes. And today, the whole shoot was based around a Calvin Klein shot that I saw about 12 or 13 years ago. So about 13 years ago, I did this single shot in my studio. Back then we weren't even shooting digital. I was actually shooting on the Hasselblad medium format and I photographed this gorgeous young couple, very similar actually, they were wearing white Calvin Klein boxers and they were doing this without their shirts on. So you can do this in as many ways as they feel comfortable. You can keep the singlets on, but the idea here is simplicity, connection and making it look really fashion, low, lots of interaction and lots of contrast when you process. So we'll you how to do that today. So this quintessential shot went up on my wall in the studio, really large print, about a 30, 40-inch. And for about four years in the studio in New Zealand, we had requests for the shot weekly. We realized we probably replicated the shoot maybe 500 times. It was one of the most asked for shots on my website and in my folio, and I still do it today. I do it today because it's still perfect, it's simple, it's sexy and everybody loves it and it looks really great for the boys too. So let me show you how I pose it and let me show you how I shoot it. I'm gonna do a quick sequence within the shoot and then you can see how I pretty much work these five or six different poses. So from here, I always get the boys to stand at about 45 degrees to the camera and the girls are exactly 45 degrees in front of them. The reason I do this is because I want his arms all the way around her body. Now you can do two things. He can connect both of his arms around the front and lock his fingers, and then she can hold his, she can connect her hands up through here and hold on to him. Or you can do something real Calvin Kleiny, thumbs in jeans, and he can also cover both boobs, okay? So it's not about having a boob on each hand, it's about covering both boobs with one arm. So it's protective, and his arm always looks fantastic from the front, because it's always about having his arms on the outside, he's the strong one, he's the dominant one and he's protecting her. So she can curl up inside his arms. So there's so many different positions that we can put here. He can lock fingers. Also now she can sit low into his hands by just dropping a knee forward and sitting down. Also pushes her weight back from the front of the camera so she can just sit right down low into here and then bring her head around and they can connect this way. I shoot this always in a bit of a silhouette light. It's not about a beauty light. Remember when we bring boys in? We can harden up the light because they look hotter with shadows on their faces, and she's the one that's got to stay closest into the light so that we make her look gorgeous. It's about this sort of very low connection. So I'm shooting below their eye line, maybe on Sherry's eye line, about here, and I just want that whole connection, and I can shoot this nice and close, get shoulders and arms, but I wanna mix it up. I also think it looks really great when she comes back and puts her thumbs in there. He can also come down and put his arms in her jeans. They can lock fingers in the front. They can do lots of different stuff, as long as we just keep it moving. And from the front, I can watch how to open her body up to him, or bring his body around a little bit more. So I'll show you that in the flow. So then what I can do is if you bring your hand back, Sherry, through his, and they can come back this way, whatever she does, they can hold hands, they can lock fingers, and I can with her shoulder. So lifting away from him, it's really natural, you wanna lean back, but I actually want him to lean forward. So you bring your chin to the front, and tip Monty onto her this way, perfect. So I can connect them there, and it looks gorgeous. The idea is it's shot on a white background, just like Calvin Klein. We've got this shade going forward. I wanna show you, if I pull this back, less light hits them and I can give them more contrast. I can open the shade back up so we're just sitting with our diffuse, natural light, just like that, and it's simple. So I really want you to master this shot because it's young and funky. Let me take some shots and show you. All right, so what I want you to do now is push your bum away from me a little wee bit more, Sherry. Other side, good girl. Now I want you to fall down into his arm there and pull your head up nice and strong, long chin. And Monty, I want you to open your body up to me a little bit more, and now tip towards her hair. That's perfect, okay. So now, just a little bit more towards me, Sherry, this way. That's it. As soon as I see that tip, now long chin forward and bring Monty with you. He's leaning on you. Don't move. I'm shooting low, I'm shooting to the hips and I just want you to relax your mouth, push your chin forward, Sherry, just a tiny touch; and that's it there, love it. So straight away, I know I've got it. I'm just gonna shoot a little bit lower here and I just want you to move your position. Monty, don't move. I just want you to kick your booty back to him this way. That's a girl. Now pull this arm out just a little bit more up into his, and put your thumbs into her pocket, Monty. So just put it down, that's it. I love that arm twist. Now pull back, Sherry, and then push your chin forward only. Good girl, come away from him a little wee bit more like this, and now you come towards her, Monty, so you're just touching down there. Now Monty, bring your chin down and just look down her body line, so you're like this way. Good girl, long chin down. So I'm gonna push you, don't move Monty, I'm just gonna push you. Now bring your chin down, stop. Look down your body line, that's it. So look back at him, Sherry, like that. Perfect. Little wee smiles, tiny, tiny. Gorgeous, love that. Okay from here, I want you to both look up at me here. Okay, nice. Now from here, nice big smile, go. Okay Monty, I want you to put your arm all the way around her boobs that way with one arm. That's it, and I just want you to hold his arm here. So bring your hands up darling, put one thumb into her jeans, Monty, and you're gonna hold his hands. Don't go back onto him, drop your shoulder down through there, good girl. Hold that, now pull away from Monty just a touch. And Monty, come down and rest on her. That's it, perfect, don't move. I love that. Okay, so just for mood, Sherry, bring your chin back here, I want you to be supermodel face. Good girl, lifting up nice and tall, this is my man, we're so hot. Pull back on your shoulders, both of you have started to go forward, which is really common. So push him back. So even though he's leaning on you, don't come forward. Good girl. Now push your chin forward there, relax that mouth. Monty, lean onto her now with your face. Perfect, come forward Monty a little bit more with your head. I love this. All right, now both of you connect a little bit more to each other. That's it, oh that's gorgeous right there. Don't move, don't move. Okay, Monty, push your chin forward. That's gorgeous. Eyes to me now. Beautifully done. Okay, this is not a really big smiley shot to me. It's really sexy, and I think it's really hot. So swap places so you're in the front and you're on his back. And I just want you, Monty, exactly like that, just open your body up. That's it, turn your shoulders, and I just want you to put your hands like this, up through his waist. Come up this way, that's it. Now I just want you to lie on his shoulder. Good girl. I don't wanna see too much hand here so just sort of come around a little bit more. And if you put your arm here, his arms look great. So thumbs into there. And now come up a little taller so that you snuggle right into him; and Monty, chin this way. Long chin towards me. That's the one, stay there. I like that. Okay, lean on him like you're almost having a little sleep there. Chin down a little wee bit, good girl. Love that, beautiful. Okay, now from the front, turn around, come back again, but this time face him. So step back, Monty. I'll actually show you that on live view. So step back to him. And now what I want you to do is put your arms up and under hers, and you put your arms all the way around her and a bit lower, Monty. So there, okay. From there, Monty, put your feet apart. And what that does is it drops you down. And what I want you to do is take your weight onto your right foot, good girl, and drop down, and now tuck into him this way so you're looking over your shoulder at me. No, this way darling. Tuck into him. That's it, perfect. Okay, from here I'm going to just shoot this nice and low. Now Sherry I just need you to drop here. That's the one, pull away from each other at the shoulders, and then heads towards, that's it. Monty, push your chin forward though, so don't get stuck down. All right, that's it. No smiling, just nice and straight. There, now pull back Monty so that you're not leaning and you go towards him darling. More, more, stop. Love that. Okay from here eyes down both of you. So Monty, Sherry, chin towards me. Forward and down. Monty, pull back from her and then come forward with your chin, and then down a little lower. That's the one, that's it. Steady, steady, oh I love that. Okay, noses towards each other, just a, awesome, a bit more, bit more, really squeeze her in, mate. Beautiful. Let's look at that, absolutely perfect. Right, so that's our little sequence, let's have a look at the shots we just took and we'll talk our way through the sequence so that I can show you their flow. So on my live view pose, I just want you to do this, I want you to fall onto your outside foot. Good girl, and I just want you to bring your hand, Monty, over hers in the front. So just, that's perfect. Now what I want you to do sweetheart is tip towards me like that. Ah, perfect, right. Nice and tall through your head and shoulders and just bring your chin long into the edge of your shoulder. Monty, I just want you to tip onto her that way, don't move. Absolutely perfect. Now honey I just want you, Monty, to bring your feet around to her a little bit more. That's it, but open your shoulder up to me. That's it, perfect. Okay, I'm gonna get this still here. Now supermodel face, Sherry, so just relax your mouth, chin around, up this way a little wee bit. Now give me a tilt away from Monty. Good girl. Now long chin and down. Good girl, down a bit more. That's it, that's it. Wow, that's amazing. I love that, one more. Okay, from here what I want you to do, Monty, is put your arms up under her boobs. so just wrap your arms over, that's it, and put them there. That's it, nice strong arm in the front. And I just want you to bring your chin this way, Sherry, and down a little bit more, don't move. Okay, just very quickly. Oh sorry, I got you blinking. Just quickly, Sherry, I want you to look over your shoulder like that, and Monty, look down her body line. Perfect, so Monty look over her chest down that way. That's it, perfect. And lift your chin away from me right there. That's it, good, perfect. Now both of you, huge big smile here. Looking down though Sherry, so look down at him. Like big smile, and just connect your faces a little wee bit more to each other. Love that! Okay, from here what I want you to do is you hold his hand like that, and then I want you to drop your shoulder down inside there a little bit more and bring your chin all the way around to him and down. Okay, that's perfect, eyes to me. All right, now you're just starting to lose position for me. So Monty, bring her back to the front. So no, this way, that's it. Now I want you to change your head position. Sherry, stand up with your head. That's it, now pull this arm through. I want this hand to go around his butt there, okay? You can just tuck that in. That's perfect. Now Monty I want your hand right across her boob. Okay, so like that, and this hand underneath there, perfect. Now open your shoulder up to me as much as you can, and you pull away from him. Now bring your face forward, Monty. That's it, that's it. Now, Monty, more. Chin up, that's it, stay there. Okay, from the front, that looks amazing right there. Okay, Sherry, you got to give me this face. Good girl, that's it. Don't move, don't move. Okay, both of you there. Little tiny smirk both of you, lips together, just a nice... Okay, now pull her back Monty because you're getting too low. That's the one. And from there, hold both of his hands, Sherry. So hold them around your body and work your shoulder inside. Good girl, love that. I'm gonna get closer, long chin towards me Sherry. Push it down, down, down, down, down. Perfect. Monty, bring your chin, shoulder around her. That's it, love that. And now honey, he's really protective so I just want you to lift up. That's it, it's like... Chin forward and down now, Sherry. Down, stop, there it is. Wow. Chin forward and down now, Sherry. Let him come with you, keep going, push it down, that's it. You're taking his weight down so that's why I'm moving you. That's perfect. Both of you look down. Huge big smiles. Go, go, go, go, go, bigger, bigger, bigger. Now noses towards each other, almost like a nuzzle. That's it, eyes down, Sherry. Too cute, too cute. That's it, perfect. Okay, from there, flowing through this sequence in the dark, what I love about this, gave a whole new dimension with Sherry in black. So I tried to stick to the very basic sort of sequence like I did on the white. So let's have a look at the different contrasts when we load both of them into Photoshop. Now what I wanna do is take them down to the floor in this outfit so I can bring jeans up into the shot, really fill the frame and shoot it in horizontal. This is definitely one of my favorite shots. It's exactly the same as what we just did standing up, but I get to fill the frame with jeans. I also get to shoot this mostly horizontal so I can do nice, big square images as well, which I love because they remind me more traditionally of shooting medium format film. So what I do here is I'm gonna position where Monty is sitting down and we put him on a box because we need him to be elevated above her. If I think the jeans or the knees are coming into the shot too much, I can just push his feet forward and they just drop down out of the frame so it's absolutely perfect. He's in a position where he can put his arms all the way around her now, and he can look bigger than her, dominate that pose and comes forward, and it just look absolutely perfect from the front. So what I then do is I've got Sherry sitting up on her foot because she was a little bit too low when she was down between his legs. And from here, I can get him to put his arms all around her, or low around her boobs. So what I don't want is for him to do this and cover up her decolletage. When you cover the decolletage, it looks like he's strangling her. And remember, her most beautiful part is the diamond from the top of her head to the bottom of her breast line. So he's enhancing her and framing her with his arms. It looks masculine, it looks sexy and she can work her shoulder towards the camera here. And the only problem that I either get with this is that people get too stuck to each other. So what I do is I pull them apart and then get their heads to go down towards each other first, and you can get these beautiful shapes. Also, he's in a position, he can kiss her, he can kiss her cheek, she can turn around and look at him this way. She can look down, they can both look down. And as long as he keeps his chin pointing forward so it's not tucked in, they can both work through the poses here, and it looks really gorgeous. Also, they can mix up their hands together. They can lock fingers, hug each other this way, and then I'll show you at the end how I turn her around. So I'm just gonna shoot a continual sequence here so that you can see how I work this little posing, this little posing flow. All right, from here, working that shoulder, Sherry, in a little wee bit more, bringing your chin towards me. Monty, come down towards her and then tip that way. That's perfect. Now bring your chin out this way a little wee bit more, mate. So that way, Monty, that's it. Stay there, love that. Okay, from here I want you to just go in there. Now Sherry, turn towards me a little wee bit more so your body turns inside that frame. A little bit more. Now take this elbow and slide it through his there. That's it. Now you can lock fingers here, pull away. And Monty, nice and wide with your arms on both sides. That's perfect. All right from here, I want you to maybe sit up a little higher. And come back Monty. So you pull back from her and then bring your chin forward. So nice and high, Sherry. And I want you to drop the shoulder down because it's sitting up like this. Good girl. Now Monty, come out to the side a little bit more so we can see you, and then come down to her, chin towards me, and down that way. That's it, I can shoot it this way too. Okay, from here, I love that. Now Monty, bring your chin back to the front of the camera, and nice and tall Sherry, up through there. Love that, okay. From here, I want both arms around her. So unhook hands, you put your hands down. That's it, perfect. Now you just cover his hand up there, perfect. So nice, soft hands under his. Bring your chin towards me, sweet. That's it, don't move. I like that a lot there. Okay, another one that really works here is I want you to swap places. So I want you to be sitting down on the floor, Monty, and you to go up around behind him. So just jump up behind him and sit straight down unto the floor, Monty, and you just sit on your knees exactly as you would normally with your elbows. Like that. You're going to sit that way, good girl, and I want you to drape over him and lean over his shoulder. That's exactly right. So towards his head, that's it. And now if this hand can go, this foot come towards me, that's it, and I want you to just tuck under here. I actually prefer this, if you pull out that box. So if you stand up and kneel down behind him, I think it's a more feminine line. That's a go. If you kneel behind him and then you cuddle him from behind like that. So just leaning all the way forward. So stand on your knees so I can see you side on. That's it, perfect. Now I want you to come around a little wee bit more, and I want this hand to go all the way over his shoulder. That's the one, perfect. Now don't go too low here and just tip onto him, relax this arm around him. Good girl. Love that. Okay, come towards me with your face and lift up a little higher. Keep coming, pull away from him. And now tip onto him that way. Okay, now this hand can just go all the way up and over, all right? And I just want you to hold her fingers there. So just lock her hand in, good, perfect, stay there. Now what I want you to do is lean on him, Sherry. Just a little bit more. Monty, chin that way. Love that. Okay from here, I want you to put both hands up and over so he can hold your hands. And lower so I can see his arms. Good girl, that's perfect. Now I want you to lean onto him this way. A little bit more, perfect, stay there. Okay, I also want you to go down. Sit up nice and tall, Monty. Actually, I want you to lean onto his shoulder. That's it, good girl. So can you kind of lie on it that way? Yeah, so maybe like sideways. Hmmm, not working. Okay, stand up. This is absolutely one of my favorite art type couple shots that I've been doing for years and years and I'll never stop doing it because I still love it. I love that everything I'm showing you today is really modern and Calvin Klein and I've been doing it for 10 to 15 years. So I always wanna do stuff in the studio that I've practiced before and that I'm getting really good at it. This is just a shot that I love. If you can get a couple to lie down like this, it's really like a spooning, sleeping position and I actually shoot it like this. So I just wanna show you this amazing sequence and show you how I pose it. It's actually quite a hard pose to get into, but once you get it, it looks amazing. So at first I just bring them in like this. I really love as they lay down, I say just like you normally sleep. And they sit comfortably like this, which I actually love. So I haven't got them in their pose yet. So Sherry, if you bring your chin around to me this way, and I just want long neck and pushing up with your chin towards me, because that's the hardest thing about lying back on your back. Now Monty, roll towards her. That's it. And I just want you to encase her head that way and just, relax your arm down, sweetheart. So just bring it down in towards your shoulder a little bit. That's it, now like you're about to kiss. So just nice and close to each other. I actually shoot this here. Now luckily, the Canon 5D Mark III shoots beautifully in live view, so I just hold the camera over here. And eyes down, Sherry, not so out. That's it. And I can just hold the camera over and do a whole sequence of shots here. Monty, put your left arm over her and lock fingers with her. Or no, let that hand go, sweetheart. I like this one, this one. That's a girl, love that. Okay, so just watch them circle each other here. Now I shoot this here, I just find my focal point and I also come down and I shoot down this line because it's shooting upside down and I love this. Monty, pull your head back just a kick so I can see more of your face. So bring your chin more towards her face. And I love what's going on here. I move around them like this. This looks good seminude, it looks good in boxers, it looks really good in jeans. It doesn't really matter. I move around and as you can see what's coming out of my camera, I just try and find all these beautiful angles where their shoulders and arms and everything are around each other, always focusing around pretty much her or his eye. When I come back to this position here, what I'm gonna do is, Monty, I'll get you to bring this arm all the way around. And roll up onto your side a little wee bit more, Sherry. So his hands join together so he's fully wrapped around you. Lock fingers, lock your own fingers, Monty. That's it. So you're holding her there. So what I want you to do now sweetheart is come down into his body line a little bit more. And I want you to hold his arm. Now long neck, and I want you to look back at him this way. So work your shoulder in this way. That's exactly right. Now looking over your shoulder at him and then your eyes down. So you need to just give me as much long neck as you can. It's such an awkward position for you, and Monty is holding his head up now so I have to be quick. So Monty, like you're gonna give her a kiss, nose down. Open your face out to me a little bit more. That's it. Like you're sleeping, Sherry. So nice and long. And then your fingers are all wrapped around each other. That's perfect. So I'm just gonna open this up here and I shoot this here, and I just hang my camera right over. I'm getting my focal point as you can see right on her eye. I'm at 2.8. And Sherry, around to his face like you're gonna kiss him. That's it, like you're sleeping, darling. That's beautiful, beautiful face. Good girl. So I pull up nice and high. I'm on the 35mm so I wanna crop the top of Monty's head, and then I wanna come down. Wow, that is so gorgeous. And I come to here. Monty, pull your head back a little bit so I can see a little bit more face. And I literally shoot that back this way. And I pull back to here. And this is a sort of shot that not so much as a jean tee shot, but I really just want that sort of sexy, gorgeous, dark, black and white shot. And then I'm gonna move around here, I'm gonna shoot this here, I'm gonna take a couple more and I'm gonna show you how I'm just shifting my composition and rotation. So I'm just gonna come around just so it's not so, oh, I love that. Okay, Monty, bring your left arm on her arm so you've got a nice, big, strong arm. Perfect, pushing it down there. His arm looks really powerful. Pull your shoulder back but open your body back up to me a little bit more, Monty, because you're just, yeah, and bring your chin up to me a little bit more. So stay looking down at her, but right there. That's it. And nice, big, circled shoulders, and I'm just gonna use my rotation either way and see if I can get something looking completely different. And hold that pose, I know it's hard guys because you've got your chins off the ground, but let's see one more. Oh my gosh, I love that. That's absolutely beautiful. I love this idea that you can create these beautiful arty shots. Also, what I do, ah, I love that! Straight away, I'm gonna drop it in to darken in editing and I'm going to put a around underneath them. You both can relax down again. I'm gonna put a ground underneath them like they're lying outside, and I'm going to give them a nice big shot for their wall above their bed because it's the sort of arty shot that's sexy, but it's not offensive. It's gorgeous but anybody could walk into their room and see it, and it's something I've always loved doing. So lots of interaction. If you wanna make this fun, you wanna take them outside in long grass and have them in a summer frock and a cool outfit and just have them lying in the grass, making daisy chains, she's making daisy chains and they're cuddling and having fun, whatever. Do it outside, you know. Do it outside. (laughs) Wherever you wanna do it, just do it because it looks great. So anywhere you can lie down, anywhere that you can get them to do this and interact together. So as you can see from this view, that's such a beautiful angle. Any time that you can get people together like that, it's just hot. And play with that, have fun with it, move around them, find different angles, but just keep their heads up off the ground. You can even elevate them with a little pillow and it looks incredible. Enjoy, enjoy this. It's lots of fun and you'll sell big images of this shot, I promise you.

Class Materials

bonus material

Business Checklist
Keynote Part 1
Keynote Part 2
Posing Guide: Set Map and Outfit
Posing Guide: Flow Posing
Posing Guide: Couples Posing
Posing Guide: Curves
Posing Guide: Teen Posing
Posing Guide: Family Posing
Posing Guide: Over 50 Demographic
Posing Guide: Beauty Shot
Posing Guide: Posing Men
Workbook
How It Works
Styling and Wardrobe

Ratings and Reviews

a Creativelive Student
 

I have purchased four of Sue's courses and love them all. I have learned so much. I found the lesson on connecting with people thru their eyes has made a huge difference in my photos already. Her before and after's made me cry. I want to be able to take these kinds of photos for my family and friends. I just love what she does. She is such a great teacher. I learn much better seeing things done, so this was the perfect choice for me to learn. I love Sue's humor, her honesty, her detailed teaching and sweet and wonderful personality. Her sessions will or should not disappoint anyone. It is the best money I have ever spent on self-help teaching. Thanks a million creative live. You GOTTA LOVE SUE!

katie
 

Pure gold. Sue Bryce is likable, talented, funny, and an amazing teacher. She calls you on your BS (your excuses for why you aren't succeeding), gives you business, posing, marketing, pricing and LIFE advice. The class is 58 hours long - and you spend the majority of it looking right over her shoulder, through her lens and watch her walk through many, many photoshoots. She verbally and clearly repeats several critical formulas for success so it's imprinted in your mind. Her advice is crystal clear and your photography will dramatically improve after this class. Before Creative Live, you'd NEVER have had the opportunity to shadow a photographer of her quality... hands down the best photography class I've ever taken.

JRomkee
 

I have just began this course and I am excited to see how following her model will help me to improve and get my business started. I have been through the first two days and there is lots of information to absorb and things to get in order before I begin the actual challenges. I am thankful that there are photographers out there who are will to reveal there secrets ad are truly invested in others improving themselves in all aspects of their life and not just their photography skills. Thanks Sue Bryce for your passion for empowering woman and your knowledge of creating and sustaining a business by being true to who you and commitment to the improvement of others! I am excited to grow myself and my business, I am confident this will be worth every penny! Were the templates for the email PDF included in this course

Student Work

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