Make GREAT Images with the Gear You've Got
Corey Rich
Lesson Info
1. Make GREAT Images with the Gear You've Got
Lessons
Make GREAT Images with the Gear You've Got
1:23:59Lesson Info
Make GREAT Images with the Gear You've Got
Well, thank you guys it's pretty exciting to be one of the opening acts for photo we get creative live, but really what I want to do is focus on how do you make the most with the gear that you've got? I mean, one of the realities and photography is while we look at the ad, aram a website and we dream about all the gear that we want to own, the fact is most of us own one camera, maybe a lens or two and that's really what we're going to do for the next hour, so is drill down on how do you really maximize your shooting potential with a minimal amount of kit and what I'd like to really reinforce? And you're going to hear me say this a lot of times, it's about using your brain it's about that mental exercise, of pushing yourself to be creative really tryingto leverage that minimal amount of equipment? And I think I hope what you take away from this short course is the idea that you can really do a lot with a little I mean, it doesn't mean you need a lot of gear to create a lot of content or...
high quality content. Turns out you can get a lot done with a minimal amount of equipment and really what I'm going to do is go through the mental side of it the conceptual the technical settings and then we're going to do a live shoot, we have a ballerina that's coming in and will use her as a model in the second half to actually really show you I want to walk the talk, I'm going to show you what I'm talking about. So by all means, if you have questions, whether it's at home on the internet or whether it's here in the audience I want you guys to write those down will probably take them at the end, I'm going to try to pack as much information into this ninety minutes is possible, so I think at a baseline level, really, what we're going to talk about is using a single camera body and two lenses and depending on how our time goes, we may or may not even switch lenses, but I'm picking kind of a middle of the road dslr this is the nikon d six hundred, definitely more on the consumer pro sumer side than on the high end. It not to be for it's, not a d eight hundred this is this is actually one of my favorite cameras. By the way, I like that it's really small form factor, but still fully full hd video enabled as well as high resolution still images, and then I the sixteen to thirty five millimeter f four lens with v r this is probably my go to lines this is what I use them most that sixteen to thirty five millimeter focal length then you'll see how I'm really gonna leverage that focal length to create a lot a lot of visual diversity in terms of how I'm shooting the other lens that I chose to work with today is actually the fifty millimeter one point four lines you can actually buy a cheaper version of this fifty one four, which is I think it's the fifty one point eight lens I might be wrong about that you have to go toe at around me to check it out um but the bottom line is this is I love the fifty one four because it's really fast so in low light I can continue to shoot but it's also a beautiful boca beautiful, shallow depth of field blends so and if I would add a third lines to this kid, it would be the seventy two two hundred millimeter f four lens and that those three lines is sixteen to thirty five fifty millimeter one four and seventy two, two hundred ninety eight percent of the pictures and the motion that I shoot is captured with that set of lenses and a comparable camera body the d six hundred so so that's kind of our baseline everything that we're going to do today is going to be based on exactly that now I'm going to talk through a little bit of what's inside of the camera and settings, just my approach. So one thing that I say a lot, and and I really mean this the memory that you put inside of your camera don't go cheap on the memory. That's the wrong place to save money, this is your entire shoot your entire day chunk of travel, your budget, your time, the models that you're working with, the event that you're capturing is going to go on to this little card and that's, the last place you want to save money. Memory is cheap these days, and I always go for the top of the line. This is sandisk extreme pro card sd cards, by the way, I love working with sd cards and it's a little known fact, these air waterproof, they're waterproof and shockproof. So in a worst case scenario, we're standing near a fountain. I'm taking pictures, I kicked the camera falls in the water, it's a disappointment because the d six hundreds not waterproof, nor the lens, but at least I didn't lose the data that I had shot up to that point. So that's really important, so go top of the line, I've never lost data, actually and that's a testament to going to the innovators sandis created this memory they manufactured they own their fabrication facility so it's kind of like when you buy a car if you buy a fiat you get a certain kind of a ride if you buy a ferrari you get another type of ride so go for the go for the best in memory that price points air only slightly different um okay, so let's actually let's dive into camera settings and some of this is very basic but we're going to build into building to the key elements here so always when I'm shooting on a dslr we're shooting raw so file formats again memories cheap I put thirty two gigs sixty four gig cards one hundred twenty eight gig cf cards in my camera you're not trying to conserve space if you later want to make that file smaller that's fine, but do it in postproduction do it when you're in light rumor when you're in photo show so we're always this is really key you're always shooting raw when I buy a camera and it shows up in the mail the first thing that I do is go through a few menu settings I first set the camera too raw I set the white space to do it I'm in the color space to adobe um actually I'm sorry I think it's just called the no b that's wrong ok, so I'm going to set the color space to adobe and then the next decision that I'm going to be making actually is what white balance? So any time that we're shooting, we're deciding what white balance are we going to be working in now when you're shooting and raw it's actually meaningless because we can later going and alter that white white balance, but in terms of previewing on the back of your lcd, you want it to be aesthetically pleasing. So I tried actually op great in the white balance or in the in the color space that makes the most sense for this environment. We're obviously standing in a studio where there's a lot of daylight bleeding in through this garage door made out of windows, so we're going to go in and I'm going to set it white balance, we're just going to get into this one, which is this is an artist representation, bad artists, representation of that of the sun and so get familiar with what these little icons mean. I mean, you have your son icon, you have like a fluorescent tube, usually, which would be, you know, if you're in your kitchen, that would be the fluorescent light there's probably an incandescent light bulb that looks more like an apple, but I think you get the point there might him now I'm now I'm on a roll here. There's even a cloud, and so the bottom line is you want to get into the right white balance so that you can when you are previewing your image on the back, you actually understand what that light is doing to your image now, however, remember, because we're shooting in raw weaken later go in and manipulate that white balance very easily, literally with the click of a button, which is one more reason that we're shooting in raw. So the next thing that I'm thinking about and this is this is really a key it's exposure and what I mean by that is we're going to talk about the exposure mode if you're brand new to photography. One of the reasons that you pay a lot of money for these cameras, regardless of the brand of camera, is you're paying for a lot of technology and that device in automated modes cameras do a fantastic job today at giving you a pretty darn good exposure. My advice is that your starting point, if you're brand new to photography, is you're going to start in this p mode, which is literally that stands for program, and the camera is going to make ninety nine percent of the decisions for you the decision can't make is what you put in that wreck. Well, what you're actually pointing that camera that you're going to start with program mode and eventually you're going to graduate into two other modes, which is going to be shutter speed, priority and aperture priority, and the beauty of shutter and aperture priority is now you're starting to make about twenty five percent more decision about what happens in that frame with shutter speed priority you actually get to decide what shutter speed you're going to use, and I'm going to illustrate this later when camille comes out, our ballerina and we're going to camille jump in the air if I shoot that one fifteenth of a second versus one one thousandth of a second that's going to create radically different image content on the back of art display now aperture priority. On the other hand, that allows us to decide how much is in focus our r f stop, so if I decide to shoot it at one point four versus f sixteen those, they're going to be radically different images based on that decision now that said, this is kind of the continuum you're going to start with program, and then you're going to eventually work your way all the way over to this world, which is manual and that's I work ninety eight percent of the time in manual, the on ly time that I go into a program mode and more commonly I go into this into aperture priority mode is if I'm really it's running gun and I don't even have time to make decisions a great example would be clouds are moving through the sky exposures changing really quickly and I'm so focused on the content in front of me the subject that I'm photographing I don't have time to constantly be ta going back and forth between exposures and manual so in that situation the sun is coming in and out of the clouds were going in and out of shade I'll go into aperture priority and I'll just allowed the camera to make those decisions for me one thing that it's really important to acknowledge and I'm reminded of this every day the cameras that I started shooting with twenty years ago when I was thirteen years old these are infinitely more advanced and they really do make great decisions most of the time for you so don't be afraid to stay in this shutter speed priority aperture priority mode and then eventually you'll move into that manual mode so that's kind of the methodology of how I'm going to be setting the camera how we how we move into shooting now the next philosophy that I think is really important when I'm shooting it comes down to I'm trying to capitalize on the situation so we have a model coming in today camille who's, a ballerina and camille we're in a pretty small space. I mean, when you look at this it's probably a fifteen foot by fifteen foot space. We have a bank of windows. We have a wood wall behind us. We have a white board and appointing all of this stuff out. I see in the corner of the room there's a mirror. I see this lamp. I'm always my brain is always thinking about how are we gonna leverage this opportunity? How do we create it's? Much visual diversity? It's possible? I also noticed I'm standing on a concrete floor and then I look all the way up to the ceiling and I see that there's actually a wooden roof some and I can if I look this direction. Of course I see you guys sitting in your chairs and cameras, and I see chase jarvis's office in the background, and so I'm always just kind of rationalizing, ok? This is what we have to work with. We have a beautiful, talented ballerina and we have this space and we have one camera body in two lenses, and my goal is how do I make as much variety happen in this situation, given those constraints and that's, exactly what we're going to dive into part of what I think we constantly need to remind ourselves of as photographers, and this also applies to filmmaking is you can never give up it's kind of like you're on the track you know you run a lap you think ok, I just did that in seventy five seconds then you do another like you're constantly doing laps, you've got to force your brain to stay engaged it's your sort of maybe dumbbells or better exam well, you've got to keep on lifting you've got to keep on forcing your brain to think think, think, push, push push to create more interesting content and I'll show you exactly what I mean by that the instant you get lazy as a creative person or is a photographer is the minute you start to fail and it's this cannot be the crutch the crutch can't be, but I only have one cameron two lenses or one cameron one lines it's it's ninety percent up here admittedly there some true limitations you can't do certain things with this configuration but you can do a lot like we can create a lot of content with that equipment ok, so let's talk about the key elements of what makes a good or a great photograph. Okay, so I like to say that a key a photograph comes down to four things and I know some of this is basic, but you're going to see how all of the supplies once we go into the live shoot so number one is light guys number one is light now when I talk about what's the value of light or why is light important in terms of how we shoot light? Really it's I like to say that it's twenty five percent of any photograph that we shoot and when when I describe light I think there's a few key words first of all I'm thinking about where is the light coming from? I'm standing here there's a big bank of windows that are hitting me that's this source it's daylight coming through the window beautiful light it's very soft we have it's very rare in seattle but it's overcast today and so we don't have any direct sun coming through so it's like a big soft box actually coming through this window so that's our light source then the next thing is the direction of the light right now I'm side lit so you can see that this side of my face is probably three or four stops brighter than this side of my face now and I'm going to show you this one's camille is is out here in front and center, but I can change the angle of light by moving the camera or moving the subject so right now I'm side let right now if the cameras on this item front let let's say we move the camera over here but I turned and now I'm backlit right? So so there's weaken relates that it's the source the light source and then it's angle of the light where is the light coming from? Here's another example I'm going to stand under this light and then you can see the color temperature just changed now I look orange, I've eaten too many carrots is too much beta carotene so and I'm mixing like all of a sudden we have daylight and we have orange light and its top light right? The angle of the light is directly above my head and we have set you know and again I can move again now here we go we have orange light from above, which is incandescent light bulb of daylight behind me and so I'm paying attention to all of this subtlety, all of this nuance of the light and we're going to talk about how we can shape light or how we can modify that light so light is the first thing that we're thinking about always I walk into a room, I walk into a situation and I assess how are we doing on light can next this composition okay composition at the end of the day with a dslr camera we own a piece of real estate and that real estate is a rectangle and it's either horizontal or we have that same rectangle you can flip your camera vertically and that's it that's our campus if we're artists and I think it's a stretch to call myself an artist, but if we're artists, this is the campus that we work with either horizontally or vertically, and were responsible for everything that happens inside of that rectangle. You have to be your harshest critic in terms of really paying attention to what's happening in the corners what's happening in the top of the frame what's happening in the bottom of this the frame and there's some general rules and remember, every rule is made to be broken. You hear this all the time in photography the rule of thirds. So in theory, when you, if you break this into a a grid actual let's, do that with another color so that you can really see the difference here. So let's do a little grid here, so the rule of thirds basically says what you don't want to do is put your subject bull's eye right in the center of the friend. The more you can stay in these thirds of the frame, the more interesting your photograph becomes and these air just very baseline concepts. Every rule is made to be breaking broken there's plenty of photographs where the subject is dead center in the middle, but a great starting point is try to move them out of the center and that's and here's a great example we look at this creative live picture here her face is in the upper third of the frame their faces air in the upper third of the frame the sun which is what our eye goes directly to is in the upper third we have interesting content that's pulling two thirds of the frame so you're always thinking about where you're going to put your subject in terms of composition and it's your frame to fill you can put your subject can fill the whole frame or you can actually of your subjects killing only a small portion of the frame so light composition and then moment and let's actually go to a fresh which will keep it all up here so we get all four ok moment this is really it's what is this picture about that's constantly one of the questions I'm asking myself when I'm operating the camera what am I trying to communicate? What is this really about? What is the story here in a sixty second window of time we could depress that shutter any one of those seconds and when you start talking about thousands of the second there's an infinite number of up opportunities and it's it's very subtle the difference between second number one and second number three of camille standing here is a ballerina so when we walk into a situation one of the things that we're responsible for thinking about is what are we actually trying to do? What is the moment that we're trying to capture so that's that's the what is this about and the wind and then the fourth element and this is you know you I usedto lump this next thing in with composition but it's foreground and background let's just call front and back because that's really what it's about it's our job to talk to think about what is in the frame and one way to really simplify that is think about what is in the background is that clean? Is it messy and what's in the foreground? Is it interesting or is it distracting from the image you know classically I look at this bank of windows and one of the things I think about is ok if I'm going to put camille against these windows I don't want one of these verticals sticking directly out of her head you know light pole is a better example I see there's a telephone pole in the background if camille stepped through this door and we started shooting her outdoors I'm paying attention to what's intersecting with their head in the background I'm looking for clean backgrounds I'm off or complex backgrounds that makes sense that actually work in the photograph so I'm really trying to organize the background and the way that we can do that is we find the background and then we put our subject in front of that background we change lenses we get closer to that background to clean it up you know, this wall for example is a very clean background it's that's an easy background it's clean looks like it's pinewood slightly stained and I know that dependent on how close camille is too that fine or dependent on how far away she is I can decide do I want those lines and focus or do I want like an out of focus pattern in the background? You know, I even look at this white board and I say here's another back and if I'm shooting close enough I can erase this white board and I have a white surface that I can now shoot camille against so background and foreground and in this room there's not a lot of foreground but let let's use this example of creative lives photo week promo here there in like the salt flats somewhere in utah and we can apply that same rationale let's say camille is actually against this window and we have this beautiful kind of industrial concrete that we're working with I can put the camera all the way on the ground here and all of a sudden we have a quote like a salt flats for ground but it's industrial concrete and where I put the camera on this concrete effects what we see in the lower third or lower two thirds of the frame and let's just for the heck of it pretend there was a plant in here I don't see any plants and chases office, but if there were a plant that might be a great foreground object, I might move the plant around so that I can control what's in the foreground versus where camille is, which they're subject and then what's in the background so these air really these air four things that you're constantly thinking about where you should be thinking about when you're shooting pictures it's light composition moment foreground and background and if if at any moment while you're shooting you're at a loss for what should I do next? Slow down for a second and start analyzing go through the checklist how could I vary the light? How can I all through the light? How could I mix up the composition? Should I go from vertical to horizontal? What am I shooting what's the moment how could I change up the moment? How can I vary the moment and then we have four ground in background so so that's kind of getting into the the elements I like to call them the elements I already alluded to pushing yourself and when I talk about pushing that's really what it comes down to it's getting yourself to move with the camera you know you you control where you're shooting from and you're thinking about these four elements constantly now one of the things that I like to do no matter, no matter what location I'm shooting, no matter how long I'm going to be in that location is I always carry a piece of paper in my back pocket and I'm going to just go through this I'm going to talk out loud about how I would scout this location because that's exactly what I would do first, I'd like to go in and scout and then when I meet that the model or the person that I'm going to be working with just like meeting a person for the first time, I'm really interested in their world I'm going to have a conversation about what did they do? How do they do it? Where did they do it? Because they know a lot about that subject matter, but let's, just go through this scout for a second, so I walk into this room this is where we're going to be shooting and I quickly make the observation, okay, we have a wooden ceiling it's pretty dark I mean there's, not a lot of life that's bouncing up to the ceiling I can imagine maybe doing a shot where I lay down on my back and I looked up past camille up to the ceiling, ok? And so I scribbled a note, you know, nice roof, you know, looking up then I walk over here and I say, ok, this is kind of a cool concrete brick wall maybe this could be some foreground element, you know, maybe it's like I kind of frame part of this concrete pillar into the shot and ok, so cool concrete pillar obviously this is the most obvious thing that I see in this room this huge glass door or garage door, great light source and I see there's actually I can. This is going to be my main light source. I can use it where I'm actually standing on this side and this source is behind me and and that's cool there's a black curtain on that side, I could isolate that black curtain so that no one can actually see that there's a studio in the background. So black background here or I could actually spin around this direction and now I could have camille against the light source and maybe a fed a low angle maybe aiken silhouette her actually against that white sky, so I'm ok. So garage door there's, a couple of variation and I'm literally building out a shot list now and this is going to become my go to shot list, so if I start forgetting, what do I do next? Where do I go from here? I literally pull out this piece of paper and and I look at it and I said, ok, I've already done the killer shot let's spin around and shoot this wall so then I look over at this this wallace fantastic, the wooden wall and I think ok, I can see a straight on shot where? Maybe on this is the obvious right? This is the most obvious shot in the room. Camille standing here I'm looking at this wall beautiful kind of sidelight big, soft light, nice clean background, ok, that works and then I could actually move over here and of course I'll move the white board and I can move this table I can shoot this way and I get these really cool, clean lines where the camera lenses pressed up against the wall and you get these great horizontal lines heading out into the distance and then camille will be framed on the wall. And then I actually walked over here and I think, but maybe I could do this backward and over here I get this cool shadow where her body is going to be sort of side lit and we'll get a shadow against this wall and then I step, so I write that down, you know, wooden wall, and I'm literally as detailed as you can be this is this actually serves two purposes one you're you're doing this mental exercise of forcing yourself to think through how am I going to make this room work and you're building a shot list so that you can this is part of the brainstorming process this is how you become creative so I start building out the list and I'm saying, you know, wall backward wall front lit and then I say, you know, maybe even I get up on a ladder for example if I could find the latter in here and I could really take advantage of this concrete floor I like the look of the concrete it's very industrial hey sure enough I see there's a ladder actually in the corner so ok ladder looking down on the floor and so again I'm building out this list and then I say, but boy, now everything I'm shooting is against other though a glass wall concrete, concrete post maybe there's some black over here or wooden wall and then I think, well, I've got the white board here when I make that a white surface, I could do a quick portrait where some detail of communal the ballerina with just the white board and no one's going to notice that's a white board because it's a white surface so I can erase this white board and I'll have yet another surface that I can work with so white board okay and then I see conveniently I see that there's actually a mirror sitting here obviously someone was uh looking at themselves in the mirror so I grabbed the mirror and I said, oh, I can totally do something with the mirror I mean maybe it's leaning into the wall and I get camille in the reflection so mirror and so you can see right now in this space that's fairly simple we just came up with a dozen options a dozen ways that we can actually photographed camille the other thing that's really obvious and I've already stood under this this here's a mixed light source this must be chases like reading lamp when he's sitting here in the office and but this is cool because it's an incandescent light bulb different color temperature and we can control that light in fact maybe what we would do if we have time is will close this curtain said that we block some of the daylight and then we can have on ly one light source which would be this incandescent light bulb and I want to use this lamp because this is really important this is what we all have. We have something like this in our house you can walk into home depot and buy a six dollars silver lamp that clips onto any wall and that's it that's my point really is it's about looking at your situation and trying to create is much opportunity as possible with that situation, so I think you guys get the point for the shop list, and then I think the next thing that I would typically do has actually bringing camille and really try to talk to camille, get to know her, understand what she does, and so can you all come on in. All right, so camille is a ballerina recently transplanted from california to washington, so, camille, I am usually a bit of advice that I would give is try to be an expert at the subject that you're photographing, but I'm the first to admit I know almost nothing, actually, about that way, except that I used to climb with a ballerina, rocklin with the ballerina, so coming out, one of the things I want to know is, I mean, really, you're dressed as though you're kind of working out, you're in the studio, working out, in fact, you're just kind of warming up, you don't have your your shoes on, and so what I want to do is just, first of all, figure out what are some kind of basic poses. What I don't want to do is get so elaborate with poses that I'm confused by the pose, I want to keep it really simple, so we can focus on creating visual diversity, so I'm also is a photographer thinking about always wide shots right and communal I'm going to do a lot of talking and feel free to just you can just awkward and we stand there smiling as I as I described so so I'm always thinking about like the the wide shot so here this is simple this is a straightforward is it gets camille is going to be standing here doing some kind of a ballet pose we're going to get rid of the white bored get rid of the mirror get rid of this white table in the background and boom there it is ballerina wooden wall but then I said that's my wife and then I always think about I want to do a medium shot and that medium shot might be from sort of you know mid waist to top of her head it's you know in some kind of a pose and here I am I'm pretending like so maybe communal show me just real quick what would how about we'll set that down yeah um show me real quickly like what what is kind of a basic I want to see what your what you would be doing like standing on your toes by the way in the spirit of ballet I also were flipped flopped just in case I need to do any moves but show me kind of what it looks like like the standard position if you're just waiting for your ballet teacher to call out the next hold this if I can hold it that's one thing to do would be was, um standing in either fifth position which is this and then just our hands behind our back for waiting for a teacher or for waiting backstage for a show we would typically stand and I've put in fourth position with just your foot back and then our hands behind our god let's just for comfort let's do that fourth position and then then we'll do some more dynamic stuff as we get into it but just because that's clearly that's not how I would stand so that says that way to me so I think that's enough to start working with so and now if we were doing this for real, I would probably spend with no exaggeration thirty minutes talking to camille about the different poses and I would be writing this stuff down on my little cheat sheet and it would be ok I like the fifth position I don't like the fourth position and you know camille and I when we're getting ready today I asked her a few questions around, you know what are the different kinds of jumps that you can do? You know I'm trying like this is your opportunity this is like the best part of being a photographer you have this ability to ask to be is naive as you possibly can be and asked every idiotic question because this is your discovery this is like your moment of discovery where, you know, camille doesn't expect me to be an expert right now, and I can ask just about any question and that's really the eligible I mean this is don't be embarrassed camille is not expecting me to be the pro same it doesn't matter what you're shooting whether it's football, baseball, basketball weddings well, if they hire you to shoot a wedding I think they expect you to know how to shoot the wedding but as a photojournalist there is a location photographer shooting advertising this is part of the process it's having this dialogue show me real quick. Show me something where you're on your toes and like kind of hands up what is that called? This is fearing position relevant today and then my arms would be up here which is in high ok, if the relevant can someone write this down fifth on the toes and high relevant and there and then high fifth okay and then this would be low fish. Okay, cool this at light and that pose looks even better to me that again we wanted to call out in one moment. This is a ballerina. This is what she's doing and so high fifth hi fis, huh and relatives and relevant high fifth and relevant okay, let's see how about I want to see something where you're actually jumping? Let me see what? Show me some options I can oh, yeah, I'm sorry. I'm going to do pasha cardassia. Okay, okay. That's a part of shots. Okay. And what about, like, the classic jim nous would call it a split it granddad runs you today let's see what that is? Sure. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Ok. And that's called what? Grunge. Ok, ok. So, grimes today I mean, I mean on you guys to remind me so what we're probably going to do is start with some of the static, you know, the on your toes. Fifth hi. Fifth that's what? It's looking ma'am doing that moves and, um so we're going to start by doing that, and then we'll eventually get into jumping and what you guys were going to see is that's it? I just chose to things were going over on our toes with their hands up in the air, and then we're gonna ever doing that. The jump runs u k I feel like I'm a pro already on dh that's it like we're going to keep it very simple and I might do a little bit of portraiture and now it's about how do we make this room work so john is here to help me john is that assistant extraordinaire here in the seattle area and so john let's actually move the white board maybe I would say let's erase that and I would I would say let's just slide it out probably use it later now one other thing that I wanted to really point out I looked I pointed out a lot of the backgrounds and the angles that I can shoot from I have this philosophy which I call it the three sixty degree approach three hundred sixty degree approach so camille is standing here in the center of the room and the obvious starting point is I'm here with the camera appointed it camille and there it is actually small in the frame let's take a picture okay that's the establishing shot right? And then I'm moving closer by zooming in and I can walk closer to camille in and I get even closer and let's actually john let's move the mirror and also this table I think where maybe the table we can just slide into this corner and yeah and the mirror ok, so and again some of this you're gonna have to use your imagination there's an establishing shot let's do it for real communal how about actually go into the er that on your toes in the high fifth? Okay, so I'm going to go to a vertical frame here give me a second. All right? As soon as john is just cool that's perfect. Okay, here we go and I'm gonna move to slightly closer. Okay, so here's, our first establishing shot I went to vertical because the frame is a lot cleaner when we're vertical now admittedly, like I need to pay a little more attention to my edges you can see the tv screen is bleeding in a little bit john, can we see if we could just push it just ever so slightly to the right that tv just that's kind of the edge my friend so and this this amount of like nuance and detail this is what we're responsible for paying attention to his photographers. This is our duty is to be paying attention to the edges. Thanks, john that's perfect. Ok, so let's call that are establishing shot. I'm going to do a slightly better job, but that one? Yep, same position. Okay, great. Okay, so there's our establish er now you can also see that there's a shadow from the television set that we probably can't get rid of and I've already broken one of my rules. I looked down at my camera and I have no idea why this is the case but someone has put it on auto white balance someone to go into white balance and I'm going to put it on daylight now we're on daylight we're shooting raw and the reason I saw that is I noticed the color temperature shifted in between those two photographs try to be in manual white balance so that you have consistency the instant you goingto auto white balance you're going to start it's going to do things that you don't understand and it's going to become frustrating you want to eliminate the variables so that you can control what's happening in your friend ok, so let's try that same thing again perfect great okay, so now we go into daylight white balance let's see what that does on the screen force there we go much more pleasing and again I'm going to point out some of the mistakes that I'm making but for the for the sake of really illustrating what we're trying to do here I'm not going to fix everything I don't like that the light fixture that power outlet is in the lower left hand corner and it looks like I'm a little off it's not horizontal see how those lines air kind of dipping across the screen at a weird angle but that's okay there's are establishing shot so now I want to do a medium shot so let's go to the same thing and I'm going to that was at thirty five millimeters by the way, I met sixtieth of a second and f or at eight hundred sl and that was actually guess surprisingly, I didn't look at the meter, I just kind of looked at the light and I said I'm guessing that that's going to be our starting point the beauty of digital though what's fantastic about digital is it just really doesn't matter if I were a stopover a stop under it's very easy to make that correction unlike the film days you would shoot three rolls of film, get it back in your eyes I just left up the entire shoot it doesn't work that way we look at the back of our camera and we know where either under over ok, so let's go same thing and I'm still in about thirty five millimeters gonna move in and here's a medium shot so let's see? And I'm trying I'm always paying attention to where I crop someone's body you never want to be right on the waist never right on the knees never right on the elbows it's kind of always midway you never at the joints is the rule so there is a medium shot we get a little closer and one thing that I notice is it's pretty squared up let's actually have you turn your tour so so you're kind of yet maybe how about forty five degrees, maybe more like even a little more toward the window right about there, okay and that just then it's I like kind of the line of your body when she's not quite a squared up so let's do another medium shut okay great ok and let's go on to the toes perfect I just really changes your body position and tell us a great okay so two frames and now watch how our body position how that really changes the effect now there's a light over here that's putting a little shadow on her face so let's actually have you stepped forward a little bit you can put your hands over your head again let's do the same thing and turn I would say turn your body there we go okay now you see the shadow just disappeared so I'm paying attention to that just that subtlety ok great and okay let's see I think the second frame I noticed that I had like that smoke alarm or this motion detector was in the frame so second frame is a little bit better and again you have to you have to understand that I acknowledged there's a shadow down here from the table and acknowledged there's a shadow from this tv set but we're talking more big picture it's conceptually we're trying to create clean content so there we go so I have my wide shot I have a medium shot and now let's do a detail so I'm going to have you in that same position and I think on this one yeah okay let's go hands over your head one more time great. Ok, now I'm going to show you guys something just said that you can see the mistake first can and then I'm going to try to clean it up now it's notice where this motion detector pops into the frame it's that's really awkward actually the motion detector and the track from the roof is right in the shot so now what I'm going to try to d'oh I'm not sure is there a little cannot use one of those apple boxes actually so one of the things that I'm going to do is just try to get a little bit higher now you don't have to have a wooden apple box I mean you could do this with the steps to war in your garage or you could stand on the pelican case so I'm going to try to block that white motion detector with their hand and then I'm gonna try to just change my elevation so that you don't see the track for the garage door so let's try that same thing okay and I might yeah you're looking right into the camera okay all right see, I think I kind of got it blocked behind her her finger here almost that's close but use your imagination pretend I just massage that frame a little more so again I'm trying to capitalize on the light that we have to work with in this background so there it is, there's my first three shots wide, medium tight but she's a ballerina like a lot of what ballerina do is stand on their toes. So let's actually now do I want to do another detail of her feet? Let's actually let's have you go ahead and on your toes for a second. Kevin perfect. So and I'm going to first do one where it's actually, all you see is concrete let's see that photograph now? We're just working. Those details were trying to create as much cocaine and it looks like maybe it's just a little bit hotter. The exposure down here, I'm actually going to stop down. I'm going to go to an eighty eighth of a second at a four let's, try that again. Okay, so I try that again in an adf lipsey I might even need stop down a bit more. That looks better, but I am going to go to a hundredth of a second. Let's, try that one more time. Great. Perfect. So hundreds. We're going to get a little more detail coming back into her feet. Yep. There we go, that's. Great. So now I think, really, I just figured out my exposure, right? So the beauty of working with the digital cameras you can instantly see how am I doing? I mean, I just if I had shot that on film I would have just screwed up and I would have kept on shooting but now we have our exposure locked down now I'm going to massage that moment a little let's try exactly the same thing and I want to see more of her back foot yeah, good to the same same same foot forward yep. There we go. Okay, great. So I'm gonna and I just know I moved with the light source so I'm actually going to go to one hundred twenty fifth of a second, okay? Great photos are in focus. Ok, there we go. So much better exposure. I like that composition more now let's again, we just got it with concrete floor let's actually scoot all the way back so I could get that wall and okay, right about there? Actually, how about read on that kind of in front of that coffee stain? Okay, now, here's another beauty of a digital camera you can actually just put it a cz low as you can. You don't even need to be on the ground if I weren't other guy could go into a live view so I could just see it let's see you go back onto toes again, so I'm going to actually come forward of that coffee stain right there okay so I'm gonna just focusing with my thumb and I'm not sure what's in the frame until I see it on the screen so look at that so we're just mixing it up and I'm not telling you that's the perfect frame I want to move the camera slightly left let's try that again okay so I'm gonna move slightly left and I think we ideally I would hide that coffee stain okay the first frame was better and again I think it's good for you to see this it's good to make mistakes it's okay that's a throwaway frame I cropped her toes out but what the point here is I'm pushing myself to just see a bunch of different variety in this situation so let's try that again I'm going to shoot a little bit wider great actually turn your body a little this way so I'm sorry the other way right about there okay and then yeah perfect that's good see if we cropped her foot out again okay that's better I mean it's again I'm not telling you this a perfect frame but there it is so there's another detail so now I decide okay well we got something with the wood wall in terms of being in a in a ballet post let me actually have you now I want to do something that's more portrait driven let me have you actually just lean against the wall yeah perfect and what what would you be doing if you're like listening to your instructor and you're taking a short break what what do you do what's the how are you hanging out naturally probably holding on with all the subway in that same position oh is that right like every that you always stand in some kind of a dance position how about even how about not touching well howbout hands on your hips or whatever naturally you would how about ignore the fact that you can lean against the wall and we see you you're just listening to your instructor perfect okay great so so now I'm going to go in and I'm gonna go through the same sequence again I'm going to go wide medium tight so I'm going to start wide and now that was all a thirty five millimeters by the way that was at the long end of this lens now I'm going to go into kind of in that twenty millimeter range how about you're actually looking out the window great okay so I do kind of a wide shot just to establish where we are ok and now and just first they pretend you don't notice that there's like a section of this wall that comes out you can see a tv behind it I'm gonna have you scoot this way just ever since okay little this way great and come forward even right there little this way great. Okay, so let's try that again I'm gonna do another wide shot here. Great. Okay, perfect. So obviously I'm just she's left justified some kind of really working with this space and just for the heck of it now I'm going because it's easy to turn the camera now I'm going to do a vertical okay same thing you're just looking out there okay? So I'm going to do a vertical and you can see in that frame I sort of cropped pretty close to her knees that was right on the edge of probably too close to the knees I actually like the vertical more but now I've shot a horizontal live shot of vertical and now let's actually do a bit of a medium shot so I'm going to go in you know the ballerina's body is part of the whole whole deal so kind of a nice tight crop on I like that gesture of her hands okay great. So that's a thirty five millimeters roughly or thirty two millimeters to be exact and then let's actually this is going to be just more of a tight shot of your face. How about you're actually just looking out the window grate, okay, we're going to do a few so that's kind of medium and now we're getting a lot tighter here with this shot ok? And you're still looking out the window great how about look right into the camera keep your head where it was but just bring your eyes right to me great okay so now you can see we're really creating some diversity here the next frame where she's looking right at me two two different situations to different looks in exactly the same location so now I say all right in theory I've already spent a half an hour doing this we've got that picture so now I say to myself ok how do we mix that up and let's see john what if we bring the white board and camille women have you come in just a foot so I want to do the same shot but with a white background really changed the light so that it feels like we're in a studio space on a white seamless so we're just going to cheat this and you're never going to know actually that I did this photograph using on a white board in the background I think that will be ok perfect okay and then communal let me have you same thing I would say turn your body a little that way good look right towards may perfect okay let's actually have you scoop closer to the white board doesn't cheated a little bit more great let's see I guess you were kind of more squared to me let's try that your body square to me and then your head yeah great just like that. Okay so let's see what this looks like I can see some reflecting light on this white board but the bottom line is look at how that just changed we just took what was in the room I can do better than that let's let's try I'm going to open up a little bit that'll allow us to blow out our highlights the whites so I'm going to go to one hundred twenty fifth of the second okay camille is looking how about turn your head that way then bring your eyes right toward me actually think looking out the windows better I like that okay great let's try one more john let's pivot the whiteboards so it's really catching that daylight yet just so it's really blown out so you can see that I'm cleaning up the frame and we're really using looking out beautiful this big soft blocks this panel of of windows looks and you can see the exposure difference come you'll go ahead and just look out that window again I'm going to show you what just happened when we just changed that ever so slightly now watch the exposure on that white board change from the way that john just shifted it it went to true white and we're getting this kind of cool reflection actually of the doors in the background so and then let's try that same thing camille put your hands on your waist the way that you had them and I'm going to try turn your body toward me again right there perfect ok and I'm going to try to get a little closer and have a look down a little bit with your chin great turn your head this way perfect so I'm calling this a medium shot and again watch how this changes its medium we're going to see hands we're going to see just the subtlety of her chin but we've now we've done this shot now with with the white board and then john camille howbout without chip moving I'm going to have john slide the white board out we're going to do the same photograph but with yet let's do it but with the with the wooden wall behind you okay great john maybe just three inches farther get perfect great okay now watch this watch how this frame changes by simply moving the white board out okay so it's obviously looser I wasn't quite as tight let's try to go a little bit tighter let's try that one more time some just subtly altering the composition I sort of tilted the camera a little bit and again I'm just going through this mental exercise of massaging the situation to create some visual diversity so so I think that's a great example of we just mixed up the background but then I say well let's let's actually try to create yet another background so john let's let's we're going to roll the board back in here and what we're going to do is actually just drape I like to carry a piece of fabric with me. This is actually for a photo reflector, a panel reflector made by photo flex I believe that's, right, photo, flex and what we're going to do just draped that over the top of the board and the clips can show if you want john, it doesn't matter where they are, but I'm using this reflector fabric blackout reflector fabric this could be a sheet from your house. This could be a piece of construction paper that's at the house. The bottom one is just having this variety is what helps just the ability that, like we're quickly going to create a different color background we could be doing this against the wall that's black we could be doing this if there were a dark shadow that we could work with. In fact, shadows are what I often times used to create dark backgrounds because they're you know they're readily available. If you're in the bright sun and then there's a shadowed wall in the background, it really does the trick cool, I think that's probably fine, john cool that'll do it um, yeah, I might have you try to just pull this side out a little bit great and again time is the key I mean never try to get yourself out of that situation where you're feeling pressure to get stuff done try to really just take your time slowly and methodically create your situations coach the talent one thing one reality that I've learned over the years is if I start showing that I'm stressed out it effects the person that I'm photographing it's okay to slow it down and say hey it's going to take me a couple of minutes while I you get the black fabric on the board you can chill out going take a take a drink take a walk around the block don't feel like you're being scrutinized the whole time and it's just about verbally communicating hey I need a little time to work on this situation and that's exactly and it's very standard of if if if we were having a hard time with this black fabric I would say to camille camille good you know it's going to take us five minutes do whatever you want and today the easy scapegoat is you know they pull out their mobile device and start you know facebooking and that's fine like that that's fine I want them distracted for a bit and then when I need them to come back I just say it coming all right let's do it and she puts her phone away and we start shooting so thanks john ok so let's just threw it in this guy out a little bit and so here I might even let's let's try toe and this isn't a perfect situation this isn't about me making the greatest photos of my career this is about illustrating how would we do this so communal let me have you actually stand stand there again and we're going to go because it's a small surface I'm just going to go right to a portrait. We're going to go to one of those detailed portrait of camille at thirty five millimeters. So let's actually, how about hands on your hips yet? Perfect. And how about turn your perfect? Just like that? Great. So let's see, now look at this. Watch how our background is going to shift by simply hanging a piece of black fabric on the wall. Totally different world like we just stepped into a completely different space. And now let's do just to illustrate how we can alter the frame. So, camille, you were looking here let's, have you now look right over it that screen bring your eyes over to me. Great. Okay, let's, look at that. You know, all of a sudden we're a little so we're going to change the light source. So now this is the highlight and she's looking into the shadows let's have you look right over it this camera camille perfect, I can't see how that looks and then now right now I'm still exposing for the highlight I want to show you guys if I saw him in one hundred twenty fifth of a second, I'm going to go to a sixtieth of a second, which is probably going to be perfect exposure on the shadowed side of her face and then we're going to blow out the left side of her face so let's try that you're looking that would bring your eyes right at me yes, perfect and I'm gonna focus on that I that's behind her nose just just for the heck of it so that sixtieth of a second ok, so now you can see this is kind of the perfect exposure on this side of her face this has blown out and it's an aesthetic choice. What I don't like is the way the black fabric is starting to really we're picking up some of the highlights and shadow details on the black fabric, something to go back to that one hundred twenty fifth of a second and you can see this stud she isn't a hearing in her nose and so I'm going to ever tilt her head down because this is the kind of stuff we're paying attention to every detail I don't think it's that aesthetic to see that inside of her nose, so I'm going to have her tilt her head down so that we don't see the inside okay, so how about you're looking kind of in my hand right here perfect bring your eyes over towards me great perfect and so now I'm back at one hundred twenty fifth of a second so we're going to stop it down that's a full stop and let's see one slight room processes there we go so I like that more you have to use your your imagination that you wouldn't see these wrinkles in the background that those would either get eliminated in in light rumor and photo shop but again that the point is we just really capitalized on a situation we shot first of all wooden background when we went to the white background then we went to a black background and we did it with moving camille less than three feet and of course you can scale this we could bring in a bigger piece of black fabric we could being in it bring in a bigger piece of white fabric so that ideally we could go through the entire scenario of wide, medium tight and every time that I'm shooting that's exactly what I'm trying to do is go through those scenarios so let's john let's roll this and actually let's do one more thing while we have this board so far I've been on the sixteen to thirty five millimetre lens let's just for the heck of it go to the fifty millimeter lens so that we get a little more compression little more magnification okay and by the way I don't know if you've noticed I don't use lens caps once I start shooting so I have a filter I have a b w filter on the front that's just a clear filter and the rationale is if I set that in the bag on a cap it's not going to damage the actual front element of the nick or lines mean filters or cheap tip the lenses and the super high quality glass so I'm gonna I always have a clear filter on unless I switch and put like a specialized effect filter on for example on nd filter or graduated filter so now we're on the fifty and I know that because this lens has a little more magnification aiken really clean up this bad black background so let's actually do that real quick just so that we can have what you're looking right at me perfect okay so so you can see now at a fifty millimeter lens look at how that background changed and once light room processes you'll really see we see less of let's actually do this let's cheat you camille let's have you come forward a little bit and what I'm going to do strug john let's actually turn the the board sets as much in shadow is possible and maybe I'll even have you just pulled this side out okay and so I'm looking at this shadow you can really see how you know this is about a stop darker than this side some trying to we're trying to get the entire piece of black fabric so that it's in the shadow and so john, how about even more like right about there even maybe hold it from up here? Perfect. Okay, great. Okay, how about looking out the window commune great little less more like at my hand great. So let's see what this does in terms of the light? So we're definitely getting a little less he how it's really becoming a true black on that left side and we have this beautiful window light that's acting is our key our main light so again that's that difference between the fifty now the other thing I would encourage you to do is really try to find the limits of the lenses so I'm going to slide this apple box in and what I'm what I mean by find the limits of the lens is used get is close to your subject as you possibly can with the lens find that minimum folks assistance and create an image using that minimal focused distance and we'll get something that's very unique ok, so so there's our minimum distance, how about you're looking out the window again great karen so now what I did is I actually manually focused the lens I put it at the minimum focus distance and then I just moved myself in and out to that distance so just for the heck of it now let's let's do a little we're going to dissect her body and shoot details but at that minimum focus distance just to create some visual diversity so we're still going to use this black fabric let's go and put your hands yep that's perfect just in that position so here it is it looks like a ballet position to me I'm going to try to isolate her hands john let's go and bring the black fabric even closer just the whole board you can roll it in and don't worry about whether it's and you can stay where you are camille and then perfect ok and let me see your hands in that in that position great can't okay, let me see what's in my frame that might have been a little sloppy. Ok, so let's let's for the heck of it I think we don't have enough black fabric and that's the other thing be prepared to say ok, this doesn't work so let's roll the board out we can keep the black fabric on it and we're just gonna work this with the wooden wall for a second okay so I want to do that same detail camille where you just have your hands in that position great okay, so I focus on their failures great lips I think I might have gotten john in the background so I'm still one hundred twenty fifth of a second to death four okay let's try that one more time, camille and go for it. Great! So again I'm let's actually go to that minimum focus distance let's try let's go into your toes commune and how about buried? That footer turned toward me side that one's a little buried behind this one there we go. Perfect. Okay let's actually get vertical and again I'm just it's almost like sketching. I think that's the best analogy that I have our job is to just get in there and sketch we're just trying to create visual diversity so that's a nice little detail and she would happen by getting really close. What we see is camille I spent a lot of time in del issues is that they're called pointe shoes. Camille and I are probably never going to have a toe modeling career, although camille is kind of doing it right but that's my point by forcing ourselves to get in there close you see that she spent a lot of time in pointe shoes you know her nail is kind of mashed up and that's that's a fifty millimeter lens forcing ourselves to get as close as possible, forcing yourselves to go that minimal focus distance on the lens okay so you've seen wide medium tight we've worked the wooden won't blackwall whitewall so now let's actually let's spin around entirely and camille let me see you know what if you're actually facing me right about there and let's just for the heck of it since we're doing details I'm just going to go right to shooting her feet but this direction so go ahead and let's go back onto your onto your toes perfect okay so I'm just going to shoot at the same exposure but odds are the shadows they're going to be a little under exposed yet so let's actually open up a little bit let's go to eighty eighth of a second let's try that same thing perfect okay let's see what that looks like a little open okay, great. So now you can see how the light has really changed by backlighting what we're doing so that's a detail shot let's try same thing let's get your hands up in the air the way that you had them before and let me just try this for the heck of it and john can I get you to maybe just slide this lamp? Just maybe where that extension court is yeah maybe spend it all the way around past the be careful of the camera maybe just slightly yeah cool. Okay all right so communal let's try that same thing hands all the way up great and I'm just and again sometimes I'm gonna play I can already tell this isn't gonna work I'm going to do this anyhow just so that you can see the experiment okay so hands europe can let's just see what that looks like but I'm searching for ok how do we get a different perspective that actually it almost works there's almost a picture that so let's work it now that's now the exercises how do I force this into something let's try that again camille okay so I'm going to get lower and maybe if I include great okay that's actually starting to work a little more so it went from more of a detail to kind of a medium shot but I think so this is starting to work actually and see and I almost wrote that photograph off I looked at it and I don't think that's going to be an image and now I'm looking at it and I'm saying hey there might actually be a picture here if I start working it ok so let's try that again community and you don't have to be on your toes if it's easier okay let's go hands up again and would you ever have your chin down its you're always looking up high let me see that what would you really be doing if you were in that position let's see that ok so chin is up ok cool that's better let's keep it authentic I'm actually going to be and don't be afraid to sit on the ground you never want to wear white pants when you're shooting have loaned okay, great. Okay, let's see what that looks like? Cool. Kind of nice. Like this wooden ceiling is working let's do this communal went on you come all the way over here and let's actually put you on this apple box just to get you a little bit taller and I'm going to try to isolate the wooden roof okay, same thing and maybe chin down just ever so slightly there we go, that's great. Now I just see a little bit of her eyes, which is great, okay, let's see what that frame looks like and I'm all of it. Is that detail? I'm looking through the camera. I'm seeing him, I don't see her eyes. We need a little eye contact can you can see my edges they're still a little sloppy in the lower left hand corner you can see like the garage door opener track and then in the lower right hand corner you see, I guess it's like more of the garage door so let's try if we possibly can let's come you know what I have you scoot going jump off the box for a second, we'll scoot even closer how about right there no let's let's try the same thing just just for simplicity can see what might need to happen is I need to get a little higher let's try that same thing yeah, I like that catch lightning righ there were you know ok let's look at that so I'm consciously deciding what's in focus so I thought I did one more okay? And I thought the first image was a little awkward it was like one breast in the foreground and I think this is it's a little more symmetrical it's a little more intentional and you can see that my focus point if I did it correctly he's actually on her eyeball looks like it might be slightly off on this frame. It might be that it's actually on her nose but it's starting to work I mean, we just created something that first I thought whoa, this isn't gonna work it's evolved into kind of a nice frame, actually. And so just for the heck of it because this is part of the exercise you just change lenses you switched your position. I'm going to throw on the sixteen to thirty five for a minute and let's just see what that looks like from a low angle and john I might have you just slide this guy all the way into the into the corner okay, so I'm gonna go go down low here and again it's okay if it doesn't work but let's at least try okay, so now I'm obviously allowing tons of the door to bleed into the frame so look at that I kind of like it I actually like that she's in the left side of the frame let's try that one more time and I'm going to even go wider and I'm going to really lay down on my back try to not smash this microphone let me just ok and how about let's go on your toes for this one? Yeah, perfect, great! And yet this is really cool now all of the sudden we're really taking advantage of being at sixty millimeters and again suspension of this belief it doesn't matter that there's a camera in the shot it's the ideas were using these these doors in the background and it looks pretty cool we have this white blown out background now because I'm down here I see that our feet a right it eye level let's try let me shoot that again, but with you I'm going to focus on your toes and let's try it great let's see what that looks like and look at that totally different look, I mean we're still in this same like twenty five, square feet or whatever this space is so that I want to work I love the garage door in the background it looks like I was focusing on her the top of her foot rather than her toes so let's try that same thing great and I'm changing by the way you can't see me doing this but I'm going to take it you can take a break for a second I'm changing my focus point inside the camera so I manually control where the auto focus that is happening and so right now, if you were looking at a vertical frame I have been on the lowest square on the bottom of the frame then I also set my camera to use the a l a f l button some focusing with my thumb shooting pictures with my finger so auto focus does not work when I press the shutter button. Okay, so let's go back on to your toes. How about turn a little more toward me? Just I'm seeing get perfect and I kind of love that like there's a blister right on the front of her foot because that says advance to maine it says ballet great let's see what that looks like? This is the first time I've been able to work laying on the floor this kind of nice well you can see look at that you can actually see that she has the blister on her foot that really speaks to me and it actually says ballet which is pretty cool so let's see if we can't work this a little more that pattern in the background is awesome let's actually try to shoot this at sixteen millimeters that was at about twenty four and see if we can't get kind of an upshot so we see your toes and maybe her body in the background okay, so why don't you bring your toes is close to the edge as you can whatever feels comfortable okay um I think we'll see I think I'm going to see your whole body so let's try let me just see you do it is this pretty stable this box and I can't can we read it that minimum focused distance and I'm gonna cheat it and just go right but well let's see what that does who that's close so that's obviously without my eye who that one's not as successful you can see when I took my eye off the camera just stopped working all right let's try that one more time we're actually looked through the camera okay? And now you're nine feet tall great how about looked down at me a little bit there we go perfect so and again these aren't the perfect pictures but the point is we're illustrating how well do you know she's? Very distorted but we could put her on another apple box so she's a little bit higher and I can get lower but the idea is we're creating visual diversity again we're just we're really milking this situation so you know that's the extreme on the floor shooting john let's bring in a ladder actually let's move I'm gonna pull this apple box out camille great okay and how about while we're getting the ladder the idea is I'm going to try to get above her now like what is that same pose look like standing on her toes arms above her head but I'm looking down and I really loved that backlight let's move the ladder just a little this way I would say thank you perfect perfect okay so let's see ok let's have you come in here camille I'm gonna walk around you with this cord now if you're wondering these air actually osha certified flip flops there very technical flip flop that's perfect for being on ladders okay great okay so let me just move this court a little okay and communal let me have you go to that same pose great and let's just for the heck of it I'm just going to do a test frame see what this looks like now look at that again we're just getting completely different look than what we just had from below so I'm actually going to go to the even more technical position of right on top of the ladder don't worry I'm my certification for this okay let's see let's try that again, camille great and come here let me have you come a little closer to me up right about there perfect and I'm trying to just frame this actually so that we get rid of the door I can let you say that's it right there great let's see what that looks like and I don't mind the door I think I just need to organize it a little better so let's actually let me do one more frame like that and then I'll try one where we let some of the door bleeding let's try that same thing and that you guys that will have to ignore the cord that I'm tethered to the computer with I can't bring you bring this hand forward just ever so slightly very good I know that might be the incorrect pose but this is just to illustrate great okay and where would your face usually be? Would you be looking at me or you'd be looking straight out let's let's do what you would naturally do cool let's do that let's try that and I'm going to try that's actually bring this hand a little in great there we get now I just shot two frames one where her hand is in focus so the first frame there we go her left hand is in focus and now the next one we go to her heads and focus that frame and so again just diversity options okay, so then the last thing that I would I would like to do is let's actually just try to get some motion everything we've done has been stop action we've been at one hundred twenty fifth of a second to an eighty eighth of a second but we saw that jump we said we can lose the latter so let's actually go to let's see we're going to count you guys know the stops so we're going to go teo five six which means fortieth of the second then we're going to go to f eight which is twenty fifth of a second and let me just check the exposure here so this is a non frame I'm just trying to see what the light looks like yeah like I wasn't even in focus let's even go slower let's go fifteenth of a second at f ten when they see what that looks like okay so fifteenth of a second way no that we're going to get a fair amount of motion blur ok, so let's let's try this a couple of remind me again guys what was the leap where her legs were apart grind should tell you guys he does win the award I have short term memory apparently ok let's actually cry try I think coming this way grand detail yup and I'm just going to track with her so I'm going to kind of all right and here we go great okay let's see what that looks like and I think I had the tv in the background but look at that. The point is we're totally transforming this room because we're adding motion let's try that again and said that your granddaughter is kind of you're in the air right about there and again I'm panning with her for this shot ok and let's do it great can let's see I think I cropped the tv out of that shot almost let's try one more I think the first one was more graceful she did great I didn't okay, here we go and then now what I'm going to do is just for variety I think the first one was the first one was still the winner maybe hang in the split as long as you can. Okay let's, try that again this where you need the sports photography part okay and action great okay, that was better I'm certain I I nailed that one I think ok cool so you get the feel for she's in the air now what I'm going to do is instead of moving the camera panning with her I'm going to hold the camera stone let her motion blur through the frame okay, here we go let's try that same thing, same jump yep, same jump is perfect, okay and go for it now watch the wooden wall if I held it still should be pretty clean and then she moves through the frame in the background. We're going to do one last scenario and then we'll take a couple of questions because we're nearing the end of our of our time. So now I want to have you do that. Same grand should stay, but this way and let me just do a test for him to see what the light I think going that wise, actually. Good. Let's. See what our light does this direction. Cool? Yeah, let's. Just try it. So I think it's going to be coming this way and first one I'm gonna pan with her and go for it. And then we'll try one where I hold the camera. Still so again, I'm a little off on the timing. Let's do that one more time. I can do better than that. Apparently, my sports skills are a little rusty here. Okay, here we go. Great. Okay, that was a better frame. And then now let's do the exact same thing. But I'm going to hold the camera. Still ok? And let's try and action, but and I think she was out of my frame when we did it, we're almost out of the frame. All right, we gotta do one more and the exercise it's good that you're seeing me miss this because this is really my point. It takes energy, takes time, you evolve each shot, and then eventually you get to the best in that scenario. Okay? And here we go. Great. I think that was better, at least. All right, maybe not. Maybe not better, but I think the point is, you guys understand what we're doing and, you know, and in fact, in this little space, we had even mohr scenarios that we didn't get to work with. We had a mirror that we're going to create some reflection. We have this foreground to work with and that's exactly what you want. You want to be going back to that shot listing saying what's next and I might spend thirty minutes doing this shot and thirty minutes, you know, budget your time, block it out, sketch what you want to do with words or with pictures, whatever works for you and really work the situation. So I think if there are questions, how are we doing on? I think we have about enough time for one question, but it better be a good one, I have a question for sure, so, cory, I know they I love watching you shoot photography, but I know you also do a ton of video, so as faras like with the gear that you've got, can you kind of talk a little bit about what you do with video and this? Sure, sure. Now, thanks for bringing that up so my world is probably more video today than it is still photography. So one thing, if you're interested in the same concept, which is making the most with what you've got with video, we just did an eighty two minute video, which is available on cory rich dot com you can go to my store and it's super insightful. What is the basic kit that you need for shooting video, making the most out of a video production? And then we go through that same methodology with the crossfit athletes of how do you create motion scenes that are powerful with the minimal amount of equipment? So go to cory rich dot com you can check out our blawg there's a lot of technical information there last week, I also did a course or two weeks ago, I did another course on creative live that was focused exclusively on shooting, still in motion in parallel on location, so also check that course out, and the main thing is forced yourself to just keep on working the situation, never give up. And you will make better pictures and better video camille thank you very much for your for your help. So awesome. All right, well, thank you, cory rich that was so great to watch you work. I just really enjoy your style and we have a thank you that we'd like to give tonight con if you'd like tio say a few words about night sure, sure. Well, as you can tell him shooting on a nikon camera and I owe a great deal of gratitude tonight convicts they're a company that not only creates great technology but really believes in education and sharing and that's really part of become robbery of photography it's being part of a family and passing along knowledge so that the greater good the creativity the bar raises and and I'm honored to be a part of that in sharing on photo week on creative life. So thanks nikon for helping to make that happen very cool. Well, I have a couple announcement that I'd like to make I'd also just like to say korea's explained how to get to his website, but follow corey on twitter and facebook. If you're not already, I think it's just corey rich last facebook, isn't it facebook dot you know if you go to my block just corey rich dot com and click on our block all of the links to our social media you'll see that we're on google, plus twitter, facebook, instagram and I forgot to say the most important part about the video. If you're interested in how to make the most with what you've got, we're discounting it greatly this week in honor of photo week, so check it out on definitely send comments via social media. I love the camaraderie I love sharing. If you have specific questions, send them my way.
Ratings and Reviews
Silas
I learned a few very good techniques, such as the maximum zoom and focus and other creative ideas. I really enjoyed this class and recommend it to anyone starting or little ways into their career.
a Creativelive Student
The content is good for beginners and Corey is able to share some valuable ideas; I liked his idea of taking pictures and discussed the elements that he does not like it. It was worth my time for sure. Respectfully
Dalal Abougouche
Great job, very informative.