Shoot: Grey Seamless with Samantha
Christa Meola
Lesson Info
23. Shoot: Grey Seamless with Samantha
Lessons
Introduction
07:36 2Let’s Get this Party Started Right!
20:35 3Redefining Boudoir: YOUR Brand & Style
29:59 4Working with Women
20:01 5Creating Relaxed Clients
17:49 6Posing and Anti-Posing
12:05 7Flattering All Body Types
21:13Providing an Amazing Experience
09:00 9Shoot: Simple Set, Natural Light
21:06 10Shoot: Students' Turn
10:09 11Shoot: Budget Hotel Room
20:43 12Sexy Styling
18:12 13Sets and Props
07:13 14Styling Q&A
19:09 15Shoot: Bedroom Set, Soccer Mom
30:52 16Shoot: Students' Turn
10:52 17Shoot: Bedroom Set, Model
18:26 18Shooting Q&A
06:52 19Reviewing Previous Images
05:11 20Shooting to Sell
16:21 21Lighting & Equipment
32:02 22Vintage Car Shoot
23:15 23Shoot: Grey Seamless with Samantha
14:11 24Shoot: Grey Seamless, Students' Turn
13:03 25Shoot 3: Grey Seamless with Sarah
21:20 26Shoot: Grey Seamless Student's Turn
08:27 27Prop Shoot
12:56 28Post-Production
21:32 29Lightroom
19:04 30Photoshop
24:16 31Shoot: Bar Set with Justine and Will
23:59 32Students' Turn (Carlos and Nicole)
07:35 33Shoot: Back to Christa
15:36 34Shoot: Students' Turn (Jen)
14:01 35AFTER DARK: Fine Art Nude
1:05:06 36After Dark Shoot Review
03:45 37Favorite Photoshop Actions
16:07 38Booking Your Ideal Client
36:11 39Boudoir Parties
06:46 40Shoot: Backstage with Margareta
28:50 41Marketing with Enthusiasm
31:25 42Price Lists (Q&A)
14:07 43Pricing Strategies
20:23 44Selling
14:17 45Website Critiques
16:08 46Shoot: Sister Kate
22:26 47Shoot: Chinese Fans with Katie
12:37 48Velvet Dress with Robin
16:51 49Shoot: Students' Turn (Jen)
21:59Lesson Info
Shoot: Grey Seamless with Samantha
All right, so we are going to do our shoot on my favorite gray backdrop um with just one light and I'm gonna bring our model in here samantha right? So samantha contacted us is one of our real women even though like she looks super gorgeous s so tell me a little bit about us why you wanted to do a shoot because you want to be comfortable with your body? I think, um I I'm kind of learning how to celebrate just my femininity and being an adult woman and this seems like a really good opportunity to do that. And really I want to take home pictures that I can show my grandchildren someday that's kind of my dream would be like the cool grandma, right? I was one hot shit back in the day. Probably. I'm sure you will be even as a grandma. Okay, so john cornyn cello is going to be assisting me let's talk about what we have up here, and then we will demo how to put it together. It's super easy. This was the or about telling you about john take it away. Okay, the orb is it about forty four forty s...
ix inch round light eight eight sided so it's similar to an octa bank forty three forty three inch okay, I know something that teo remember that it sets up like an umbrella and when we take the set down we'll show you how it assembled and disassembled we wanted to have it ready to go here so my settings right now I'm at one hundred s o always at one hundred when shooting in the studio with the strobes one twenty fifth is pretty much the safe shutter speed you can't go any faster or you'll get clipping which is you know when you see a black bar on the left because you're a shutter speed you know is quicker than the light so it's cutting it off and what else to say oh, I'm at two point five so let's get stoned did samantha I might call you rachel for some reason it was here let's just stand right about here a little bit to the left and towards um this is a good question and let's just the shoulder towards me and let's get that fan going john and just hit the back of her hair and I'm just gonna do some lighting tests first so you don't need to do anything here just uh yeah perfect little more john beautiful. So what I'm going here um just talking to you a little bit about placement um I have it up high whips up high tilted down and to the right a little bit because I'm really going for some dramatic light and shadow here and I'm using the or because I like I said I liked around catch like but also because the silver lining it's going to be a little bit more punchy with contrast all right so let's lift up that shoulder yeah, I need a lot of fan okay, perfect gorgeous even yes seduce me and then I down into yeah, perfect. Can you just stay here with your hands? Yeah exactly could use both you could keep your eyes closed. Shoot sorry, hold on. Turned off my camera by accident once again. Sorry anything. Oh, that's perfect gorgeous it's all good and sews my camera's ready obviously saying come on almost there make sure you look at her and follow her with finn okay? And try and keep your feet planted because, um I'm only shooting from like here up and I don't want you to move away from the light it's perfectly set right now. All right, awesome. Are we ready? We already beautiful love let me check gorgeous. You know what? I think I'm going to get eighty five to shut the camera off to do that. So I figured I just want to get some juicier close ups the fifties just a little too wide for me right now and because you've got such great expressions going on, I want to get that so I never use lens caps for that reason ok gorgeous keep going beautiful hold that perfect john someone shooting uh eyes distracted look at me for one one more ok beard a little too far from the light good play and like look at the light source let me do a full profile last year from over there full profile you can keep your hands down but cross your hands invented yet give me a little shoulder yeah perfect beautiful and then eyes downward excellent. That is a little harsh um hold on okay, I'm gonna get right in here so from your lips which are perfect people just like that beautiful let's turn this way now yeah, but not that far right about here cross your yeah look, I'm sorry like this yeah turn a little more this way perfect look at me like I was cute but yeah, I busted you on that one. Okay, so the only thing is I'm wishing this was like darker and maybe it's because it's not grand that's okay no no, no no. Um all right let's uh can you blow the fan up on this thing like from down there? What is this called a schmear? You whatever I can to catch some air let me see turn around for a sec yeah oh, it's open back alright uh okay turned back to front for a second yeah I get a little billy shot cross your legs yeah, I love your hands just as they are let's try and catch some may see first of all the white cross and even more like papa hit okay yeah love that can you get under it? John can you try and find it and then can you like lift it out? Yeah, perfect not so you know and I like your in here and just like a little bit like that like it's being blown up and you just yeah hold it but I want to see some belly keep going john you're not hitting her there you go. Keep your legs crossed well perfect. I wish I had some other loans I know, but this is good I'll just move okay um turn your butt yeah, okay and let it go john hopefully you'll catch it again. You're perfect. You look amazing. Do something else with your hands maybe through your hair john I want you to stay where you are you're perfect gorgeous may see this okay, I need your face towards the light do that whole thing again but keep your face towards the light beautiful okay, awesome take a break for a second, okay, questions sorry, odo you may have already actually mentioned it, but do you have a certain distance from the background that you're putting your models oh no I'm depending on how much space we have but just about you know where she is right now you know more than that um so see like when I went to review it and seeing like like her hair which was awesome was blocking the light so so I need to cheat her face towards the light a little bit um we could review a little more maybe nico whoever if we want to take a peek it some more and talk about them but I like to use the fan and I can create spontaneity don't have control over the flutter I just kind of try and let it happen um yeah, maybe some go up one and over to the right like you know something like that for head was tours all it would have been better maybe I'll crop in that's nice belly shot because your hand was out of it usually not shooting body shots with eighty five I just kind of backed up because I had the spot the space going tio let's change the location of the light let's teo front on yeah so this is going to be less dramatic less for curves and more for universally flattering turned out at max capacity like this no it's down actually at the lowest lowest yeah which is usually what I have to dio and then sometimes we had those filters on even but right now it's bare so I love working with like skirts or dresses or you know, summer dresses that come up to here because then all you do is stick the fan on there and you could even want that do you use one that's a floor fan if you don't have an assistant and you just blow it up and having her hold it out always helps a little bit catch and plus it's from blowing all the way kind of keeps it right over here and that's a great way to do it nice little flirtations but shot she actually didn't have that in the back pocket or we would have done that okay cool let's do that fine let me test the light row quick I really should do fifty okay, thanks. Ok gorgeous. Beautiful okay, you can stand up john we're not gonna we're gonna do somebody chef okay, as long as you're not in the way of the late check it ok, so you're doing amazingly you totally know how to move. I just want to make sure I'm crapping you at the thigh so wanted to make sure your legs are either cross or you've got a leg bent gives you a nice little kind of curve no cross them it's better if you can okay perfect and you, khun just I want to do slow moving like touching your body and keep your hands kind of separate like one up one down or yeah yeah perfect and if you could shoot your face to the light that would be great and john you just follow her and you just look at yourself look at your body look at what you're doing as carlo said so well awesome keep going can we have your hands appear to keep going one up one down go through your hair everywhere keep going keep going perfect awesome beautiful okay let me check some of those yeah totally q okay but just don't pull your neck back when you do that step a little forward right there go ahead with both hands like you're doing yeah just screw it up for me stands in my way thank you keep going keep going e love it love it love it love the laughter um can you try and cheat your head up a little more than you are getting all tucked down in there okay keep going that's gorgeous ok love this one that's second to last one um going too give it over to our peeps who is up next keep going any guest it's trying to find the shot but I want you to get ready so you need to get the sun while we review some images yeah I'm doing okay keep going go flip it around go oh I see that one loved this one black and white bang so I keep working like I'm not really doing a lot of posing, except keeping, reminding her to cheat her face to the light and then just coaching her to keep going. You know, yeah, she might fade and start going like this, so, you know, you're going to keep it sexy, keep it alive, and I just moved through it for, like, a minute or two. Um, and then I'll review, make sure nailed one like this one, and then we'll move on to something else. Okay, so this was this is one of my money shots, it's, like, um, loving life, uh, staying awesome, get it, and then move on.
Class Materials
Ratings and Reviews
a Creativelive Student
This is meant to be a HELPFUL review for those that are wondering if they should purchase this workshop. About 75% of what I took away from this workshop was posing, composition for boudoir and the importance of eye lines and capturing movement. I had two boudoir sessions a week after this workshop and my images significantly improved. I was able to coach my clients through poses better, direct them on where to look for better eye lines, I was more aware of their posture and how to fix it, I think I sounded more professional and felt more confidant with getting awesome poses, stand out expressions and adding movement to my images. I put a fan on my client the way Christa does.. and she is right! The instant I put the fan on my client, her expression changed and you could tell she was really "feeling it". She told me she felt like a real supermodel right after I turned on the fan. If you are looking for inspiration on how to coach women and pose for boudoir then Christa is the girl for you. I think the most worthwhile thing I learned watching this is something that will help me in the years to come... with my brand, my website, my workflow and my business goals. I learned how to "keep it simple" which is Christa's tag line. For example Christa brings a roll of gray background paper and uses gaffer tape to hang it from the wall of the hotel (instead of bringing a 12ft background stand). I know this seems simple but this will change my life! I hate dragging equipment back and forth. There are some negative reviews on here about Christa's technical skills, but I think these people may have missed the whole point. If you provide an awesome product and an awesome experience for your client, they will buy it. And guess what.. your client will never know if you used your camera in auto or manual and they won't care if you used one light instead of two. As someone who has been in business for 3 years doing boudoir exclusively I learned a lot. I see a lot of value in learning from someone who doesn't spend a lot of money on fancy equipment, yet charges her clients over $3,000 for sessions. I'm a huge fan of her keep it simple philosophy and I'm glad Christa is willing to be honest about her workflow and how she best utilizes her time. Your not going to agree with or use everything Christa talks about, you take the parts that you like and are most helpful to you and work them into building a stronger business.
a Creativelive Student
AWESOME DEAL on Christa's course. I just sent an email to my husband to tell him thanks for "gifting" me this course. I told him just the ONE CLASS about pricing was worth the full $129 price of the course. And there are over 50 classes?! That is a crazy stupid good deal. You can learn something good from every class you take, every book you read, and just apply the stuff that works for you. There are a lot of people out there who seem to just enjoy giving crappy reviews, and to me it's almost like bullying. How someone could not find $129 worth of value in this course is beyond me. In my opinion this course is worth over a thousand bucks, because it can help you make SO much more money. I hate when I see people whining about things that are not 100 percent perfect, and they get annoyed if the person isn't catering to their exact needs. It's like the Yelper generation, with a disturbing sense of entitlement. I would love to see those people try teaching a class about boudoir and see if they could do any better. It also seems like, the more popular a person gets, the more other people feel the need to tear them down. I'm grateful that Christa even offered this course at ALL. Thanks Christa for all you do to help those of us who really need to know this stuff. You rock.
a Creativelive Student
I never thought I would shoot boudoir. I am a shy and private person. I started entertaining the idea when I first saw Christa's work and saw how beautiful and tasteful it can be. I love her lighting and all that she uses from historic painters and sculptors. I watched all three days live and learned a ton. I have a lot of lighting education, but it was nice to freshen up my skills. I loved the posing tips and the three typical situations she uses for one shoot. I loved learning about how she shoots in hotels and also using things like an outdoor situation. I have now shot my first boudoir session and it was a total hit. I am thrilled to show my client her images. This was fantastic! Thank you, Christa!
Student Work
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