Lessons

Lesson Info

Shoot: Sisters (Katie and Erin)

I just want to show you a couple of two tricks that really work well for me. Basically when it comes to posing two, it's very easy to pose couples when they can get nice and close to each other, nice and physically close to each other, their hips touch, and their noses touch, they can kiss and laugh, cuddle each other and touch anywhere you want, okay? So the only rule that I have for couples is his arms go on the outside of her arms, okay? So that's my only rule. Secondly, a couple when you pose sisters, so when I pose sisters together, you can turn toward each other and you can touch hips at the back and then put your arm around each other at the back and then you can hold elbows in the front. Now your body can turn toward each other, that's it. Then your face goes out to your shoulder, and your faces go together. No, no, no, that's far. So go out to your shoulder, then go towards each other. So you're not touching and then you tip in slowly. Okay so the biggest mistake that I see pe...

ople make is you can't join brothers and sisters at the hip because a couple are joined at the hip because they're intimate but you'll find that most people will pull back in their lower half when they're family and you want to try to get them close together but you can't but their hips together. I can definitely turn Kate this way a little wee bit more, so turn your hips, just your hips back toward her. Towards her. Towards her? Yeah, yeah. That's it. So go through there. That's the one. So as soon as I turn their body language towards each other, I can get their faces together. Now I always touch the back boob. So I always make sure they're like a V and then I always make sure their arm comes around the back on the right, that arm comes around each other on the waist, nice and low like that so I can't see it, and then their shoulders are open in the front. Now before I bring them together, people often do this. I want you to tip toward each other and people do that and that's what I don't want. I don't want that downward angle to the face. So the first thing I do is you bring your chin this way, Erin, Kate you bring your chin that way and now, you stay in that position and just meet in the middle. And I get them to turn their face out before I get them in. Cool? Then what I do is I make sure that they're on the same plane. So Erin's a little bit further so I push her back and Kate you need to tip toward Erin more at the top of your head. And as soon as both of their faces are straight, I make sure that their legs are relaxed and right now I want you to take both of your weight on your back foot. That's exactly right. So as soon as they took their weight on their back foot, straight away their front knee jumped in and as soon as the front knee jumped in, that shape happens there. And I do this for mothers and daughters, sisters, best friends, it's the same pose. Keeping it open in the front. Kate, you're wandering so you go, no, no, chin that way and come back halfway and tip in this way. So use your tilts. Tilt them in like that. Make sure that you use them nice and flat so you're in a perfect position right there. Okay, this shot sells for me every single time and I'll show you how I do it. Kate, you come first. I want you to ... I don't need a reflector I don't think. Kate, you come in here and I want you to lean against the wall so I start off in my position number one. I go here, and you can kick out as nice as you want, far as you want, that's it. So come toward me a little wee bit more, stop. Okay, I want your thumbs into your jeans. Good girl. Now I just want you to turn your body this way and I want you to work your chin forward, all the way forward to me. So straight away, if I start off on the wall, and this is what I did yesterday when I shot the mother and daughter that you didn't see. I just come around here ... Tiffany I do need that. Just a little half one would be good. Not the half, the little third. Yeah. Just so I can bounce a little light up. What I'm trying to do right now is in two shots, create a series that I can sell because I can do this in two minutes and I want it to be real fast and I want to just guarantee that I've got a gorgeous series that I can sell. So that's it. Can you sit down? Yeah there you go, perfect. And then everyone can see. Okay, so I'm bouncing a little bit of light up, making sure there's lots of light to the face, and Kate, what I want to do, is I want you to just turn away from me even more, stop, and bring your chin back. I want you to put your lips together. That's a girl. Now relax your mouth. And straight away I can hit Kate right there from the top of her head (camera clicks) down to the top of her jeans. I like this shot where I can get a little bit of jeans in if I can because I don't want to cut everybody off short. Give me a beautiful big smile, let it go. Okay, from there, turn your body away a little bit more, because you're not working your shoulder enough. Now I'm seeing the shoulder. Now I want you to connect to the front shoulder. Did you see her body language change when I brought her chin down to her shoulder? Significant difference, there it is. I want you to give me the smile right through your eyes, no, not your mouth. Lips together. I want you to give me that smile right through your eyes. Good girl. Chin down, falling down, stop. A little bit more smile in the eyes. That's the one. Okay as soon as that smile comes in, I can see it. Then what I do is I want you to come toward me ever so slightly. Yeah, stop, lean back (mumbles). Come on Erin. Then I get mom, daughter, sister, whoever, best friend, to come in and straight away, I'll swap you out. So you can just stay right there and I want you to do almost exactly the same thing but I want you to go side on to me this way. That's it. And I want you to just put your thumbs in your jeans and swap the weight of your feet to the outside. So as soon as you swap the weight of your feet, kick your hip out there as far as you can. Now Erin is straight up and down so I want you to bring your knee that way, okay? I want you to drop your shoulders down. Good girl. Now what I want you to do is to push your elbow back this way, all the way back so your thumb goes into the outside of your jeans and you go ... That's the one, drop it back and this hand can still stay there because I want to see that rest elbow back. Elbow back, just elbow back. Elbow. I know, everyone tries their wrist back and then their shoulder back. So leave your shoulder forward and just pin that elbow back. Now it's gonna work better if you push your hips further toward her. That's it, more. I want you to kick it back as well. Kick your booty back that way. That's a girl. Okay, now, whenever anybody changes the position of their bum, for some reason they change the position of the neck. So they instantly come up like this and it just happens with everybody. So what I want you to do is I want you to push away from the wall a little bit, stop. And I want you to long chin towards me. Good girl. Okay, now, I want you to give me a slight tip this way. Now all I'm doing here is resetting Erin. So I'm just gonna make sure your hair's not squashed up on the wall, I want the elbow to go back, good girl. Now you're in position. Long, stop, not too far. Just up a little wee bit. Stay there, okay. I want you to relax your mouth Erin. First thing I do when I get people to relax their mouth, all right let it go. That's it. Now, soon as I see people relax their mouth, I see two things. I see where their natural mouth sits and then I can get an expression out of them. So stay there, there it is. Don't move. Just let it relax like this. You just did it. Okay now push your chin forward, stop. As soon as I see that chin come forward I've got it right there. Give me a little bit (camera clicks) of a twinkle in the eye. A little bit more than that. Good girl. Lips together a little wee bit. Tiny little smirk, you've got it. Stay there. Very very slowly move your body away for me like this. Keep going, keep going. Bring the shoulder forward, not that far. Okay not half-way. That's it, now relax your mouth. That's it, stay there, stay there. Lift your chin up, good girl. Chin down a little touch. There you go. Don't move and I want a little tiny smile in the eyes. You just gotta give me a little bit more. That's a girl. A little bit more smile on the mouth. Nice, beautiful, good girl. Okay from there, then what I do is I jump in. So in two minutes I want you to stand up nice and tall. I want you to turn around, face Kate. I want you to go towards each other. So come in, yeah. Come into this side a little bit more. Now Kate, you're significantly taller. That's so unfair by the way. (Kate and Erin laugh) Is she your little sister? No, she's older. Oh she's your older sister, okay. So she's older and taller. (Erin laughs) okay I want you to put your feet apart and what I do, not yours. I want you to put your feet apart. Oh okay. Yeah and what that does is it drops you down a little bit more. You're still above her but there's no way I can get you down without squatting, okay? Then I want your hands around each other at the back. You've got that sorted. Elbow on the front. You've got a few choices here. You can give me ... You can do her arm here and you can put your thumb into your jeans. So that really works for me. You both bring your chin out to your front shoulder, chin out to your front shoulder, and then you tip towards each other. No, no tipping. You go towards each other with your cheek. Okay, so closer, closer, there it is. Now, the cool thing about this shot now is Kate I need you to walk your feet in closer. That's the one. A little bit more because I don't want you leaning in. Chin goes this way and go towards each other. A little bit more from you Erin. That's the one right there. Just relax your mouth. (camera beeps) Both of you relax your mouths and chin forward and down Kate. (camera clicks) Sorry I got a blink so I gotta take another one. And then I want you to tip towards each other a little bit more. Just a little bit more relax at the top of your head. A little bit more this way, into each other that way at the top. At the top. Yeah, there you go, there you go. Long chin towards me girls, long chin. Okay I want chin forward and down, longer, longer. I want you both to work your front shoulder in a little bit. Ah nicely done. Beautiful big smiles. Wow you two have matching expressions which is hilarious. And then always I do something ... See, they look so much alike when they smile. You put your elbow up so that, no. Stay there. Erin, yeah. Kate you put your elbow up so you hold her arm and then like a heart shape just tip into each other. Kate don't hide in her hair. Just pull forward a little wee bit more. Chin forward and down Kate. Okay, straight away I am there and a nice little relaxed mouth on both of you. Slow down those blinks girls. Beautiful big smile, go. And then I always do one where you just relax your smile a little wee bit and I just want you to squeeze your arms around each other a little bit more. That's it, fabulous. Okay I also have two choices here when it comes to ... When I shoot two people I tend to shoot twice as much. I tend to fire twice. I do that for the double blink. You can't really watch for two blinks and I want to make sure. You never want to finish and go I got three shots and they were blinking in three of them. I always want to get that third one that I know is amazing. I tend to do really simple things also, like I can swap out ... What I did with Tony and Hannah yesterday, was I put Kate behind so, just tip forward Erin. Kate come in and you can go behind her. I tend to do that more for a mother and daughter. You don't kind of walk up to your sister and cuddle her from behind as much. Although I'd rather do something really funky like this. So if you have a look at, can I get back to the Key Note? If you have a look at all the variations that I have in terms of twos, this one was really, really cool. I actually did a shot, actually girls, come on over. I think a camera can follow us here. Or is it too dark? Are we all right to come over here for just a second? Come over here. What I did with this shot, was Kate, I want you to sit up here on the arm. With my legs here? Yeah. Just sit down, one leg up. And I get one. So if I have anything staggered like this, I got May to sit over there and what I did was get you to sit between her legs with your back to her. Okay, straight away, I can create an image here of these two but my biggest problem, I've got two issues. Scooch your bum back, Kate. There you go, back that way. My first issue is I've gotta make you fit in there. So jump out. What I actually want you to do, is I want you to sit on your foot as far in there as you can so that you go right in there, up under her leg. That's it. So put you in there. Then I turn you this way. That's it. And then you don't sit back to her because that's a natural reaction. Everybody sits back in here and that pose doesn't work because it's sitting back in there. I want you to sit forward and then I want that elbow on there. Then what it allows, is it allows Kate to come forward and it's Kate coming forward that makes the shot better because as soon as Kate comes forward, and let's go and do it on the bar stool. So that's what I did there and then the shot on the right is the shot I just showed you. So if I use a bar stool like this and I just use maybe the box as well so I can use a bar stool and a box. As long as I can get any staggered position, I can make this work. So Kate you come up here. The box is there. And I want Kate to put her foot out there on the outside. And I want you on the edge of that. You can sit down on there, yeah. Okay, now, I want you to sit back a little wee bit more and I want you to bring ... Ah let's see if I can get this. Turn this way. Turn everything this way. That's it, stay there. And I want you to come forward, okay? Now then I need a third level. Here's my third level here. This goes here, okay? This goes back here. We get shape here. You can connect hands here. Kate you come over and forward. Yes, you're not sitting on top of her. Really really important that you sit up right. I want your chin to go this way, Kate and come back to me. And tip down to her that way, yeah. See how Kate's head can tip if I just put my tilt on. That's my head tilt. And then you can do two things. You can bring your other elbow up onto her knee and Kate you can get rid of your hand because I don't need to see it. You can bring your hand down and connect hands. So a really neat way of connecting you together is to bring your fingers here, Kate you bring your hands up and over here. Lock fingers. Okay, so I want them to hold onto each other but I don't want a fist here. So you can either drop it down, you can take it up, but in some way you have to connect to each other. No, not your elbow. Okay so you have to connect to each other in some way. So if that's not working, let her drop this hand down and then let her hand drop this elbow in. Let her hand go in there, that's fine. I don't mind it. As long as, Erin, you sit forward and then work your chin to your shoulder. That's a girl. So as soon as Erin works her chin there, now go back because Kate's sitting forward and Kate, I want you to come forward and go back Erin. That's it. Now go back Erin, okay. Stop, long chin though. So even though your shoulders are right back in there, Kate you're a long chin and don't go long chin pull away first. Pull away and then tip and then go in. All right so it takes a little bit. Isn't it strange? I'm kind of going pull, pull, pull but the idea is I need to get them in exactly the right position both of them together. So just bring your chin down Kate a little bit more. Now I can see that they're engaged right near their face. I'll take a shot of it. Ah yes. Come and sit down low. Okay so right here and I'll make this work. Lower, lower, lower. That's it, okay. So don't tuck that chin in Erin. Bring it to me, that's a girl. Push your shoulders back. Kate pull away from Erin's head a little bit but now bring your chin down. Now Kate, work your shoulder in in the front. Good girl. As soon as I see that shoulder work in, slow those blinks down girls, relax your mouths, give me a nice little smile in the eyes. So maybe lips together a little bit more Erin. That's a girl. Little wee smirk. Kate pull away from Erin, pull your chin down and then go towards her. There it is. Okay beautiful big smile ladies. One more, one more. Okay Kate I want a real smile, not a fake smile. (women laugh) Okay so what I want you to do is pull away from here. You keep drifting back like this and your face just goes out of frame so I want you to bring it back to slight tip. Bring your chin back, here it is. Work that front shoulder and Erin just chin this way to her. Can you see them engage into each other? Can you see them, they just fit in? It takes a little bit of work this one but it's just so worth it. Also this is every shot I do for mother and daughter, sisters, friends, sisters, every shot, I do this over and over again. Kate pull away again. So Kate keeps resetting just like they did when they're single. With single girls you just reset to one position. Kate you keep tipping back, so lift up tall, work your shoulder. That's a girl. Stay there. Erin pull your shoulders back and your chin forward and both of you little smirk. And Kate pull away from Erin a little bit and tip down onto her with the top of your head like that. That's a girl. And just a nice easy smile but Kate you gotta give me a real one. Okay nice and easy smile Erin, go. More Erin, you gotta keep up with her. (camera beeps) Okay, stop. You're both going at this now. (women laugh) okay, get into position, lift up nice and tall, pull back Kate, chin forward. That's it Kate, chin forward and tip toward Erin. And a nice easy ... Erin stop smiling (laughs). Okay lift up nice and tall, listen to me. Lift up nice and tall, push your shoulders back, chin forward, stop. Kate pull back, tip down to her. Now you're in position. Kate, work your shoulder. Okay, stop. Don't move. That's a classic example. I just reset them again and I reset them again and I reset them again and I made them laugh and they reset again. Reset it one more time. I want to nail the shot. I will keep resetting a pose until I get it, okay? And I'll keep doing it. Now, I start getting to the point where I'll let them laugh and I'll let them do their thing but now I'm like stop. Okay I've gotta get this shot because otherwise I'm just wasting time. So pull back Kate. Shoulders back, Erin. Lift up tall, chin this way, Erin. Kate pull away, tip down towards her. Work your front shoulder and I just want a little smirk on the mouth and a tiny little smile in the eyes. Go in more Kate. That's it, that's it. Now just a half smile. Just a sweet half, let it go. More Kate. Perfect Erin, more Kate. That's nice, a little bit more Kate. Doing real well, good girl, that's the one. Squeeze her tight Kate. Arms around, nice and close. Put your arms around each other, just wrap each other in nice and close. Beautiful big smile, gorgeous. Thank you very much. Love that. Okay let me get a camera. So let's just look at twos for a little while. I think twos are incredibly hard to pose. In fact, twos when they're not a couple. So I'm gonna just open that up for a minute just to give you a white background. Okay and come in here just for one second. I'll just make it easy for the camera and put you in front of the white background just for a sec. Yeah, right you can bring it round just so that everybody can see. That's it. Just stand in front of the camera just in front of the white background. There you go. Come in here. What I did with this pose that the girls are doing now is, where can I stand that's comfortable? I want you to come forward a little bit, okay. Turn and face each other. I want you to put your arm around each other, the back. Kate I want you to do the same thing where your feet are relaxed and out. I will do that to anybody who's too tall, okay? So straight away, it drops the tallest person down without them being the tallest person that has got their bum back, okay? Kiana's putting her hand up because she's always got the tall person. So Kiana, it's actually easier for you to put your back foot out. Okay and it drops you down quite significantly but you can put your back foot out. Also remember you can take your booty this way. And it just makes a difference. What I did with the girls here is I wanted to create the twins, that heart shape. I could do it with these two because they've got nice long arms, is what I did was I put that up and over and then that around there but the elbows were going down towards each other and that's what made it look so beautiful. And then their chin was out to the front and then their heads were tipped together and that there is a heart-shape. And for sisters, mom, everything, that is just bought by everybody. It's just absolutely good. If you're doing twos with curves, all you have to do is take the weight on the back foot and kick your bum out that way and it makes a significant difference to the camera, to the front of the camera and how it works. Now remember the deal, these are my beautiful daughters, okay and I'm the mom, and I'm gonna jump in between you. Come here daughters. And I'm gonna have my three shot just the same. Elbows up around here. Now if I'm the heavy one in the center, my body weight is going to dominate these two girls on the outside because my body weight will dominate through the center. So what I do is if you've got ... Have you got a good camera line on this? I can put my weight through the back like this, just like I did on the outside and I can take my weight out of that three and bring these two in around me. And the second I do that, my chin can stay forward and down but can you see I significantly dropped out of that shot through the middle? But I'm still in it. So instead of being up here and dominating with my body weight, I go back through, okay? And it's just a great way to do it. Also, I was laughing about this with the girls the other night at dinner, just sit back Kate, if I have a shot with just Erin, what I do is if I take a shot like this with just Erin, my body weight dominates her body weight straight away, right? So you can see it from this angle because it works really well. And what I do here is you watch this, I take my weight onto my back foot, because that takes my body weight back and I can turn Erin's weight side onto the camera. So what it does is I use her body line to slim my body line, okay? So when I was telling the girls whenever I have photographs taken with all my skinny girlfriends, I just pull them in nice and close and turn them sideways. (women laugh) Right with you I go (laughs). So instead of me being here dominating with my body weight, I pull my body weight out of frame, I turn her there and I use her body weight and mine together. And you can do that if you have a slim wife and a bigger husband, you can do the same thing. You can widen her up and bring his body weight against hers, you can do it the other way around, it just works for twos in lots of different ways, mother and daughter. What if it's two curvy girls? Well we're about to do that, yeah. So posing twos, what else have I got? When I look at this Key Note, here's the variation for me. I think we've done all of these in terms of they are the same rules apply. All I'm trying to do is get two people up and over. Tif if we can bring the ottoman in, I can show one more gorgeous shot. So girls go that way. Just watch that camera. So the two shot that I took with the girls when they were staggered. You know, that way, side ways, and straight back. Yup, there that'll do. Okay and so what I do with twos, you'll need to come in and reflect, is I get them straight down onto their knees and this is the shot I also did with Tony and Hannah yesterday and it really works beautifully. I get you to hover up and over, so just like everybody does the same thing. They sit down onto the feet. So I want you to come up and over. So just listen to my language as I'm sitting people into position. Because the language I use is really really basic. It's come up, and over your elbows, okay? But I don't want your bum up in the air. So I have to make a decision right now whose arm is gonna go behind and I'm gonna choose Kate. So Kate put your left arm around her waist. That's it, nice and low. Now, what I want you to do, Erin, is slide your elbow into her space, okay? Now I see so many people trying to do this shot and what they try and do is bring your elbows back on, bring your elbows back on, both elbows, yeah, yup, is they try and get people to give their now. No amount of arm moving is gonna get their heads together. Okay, so somebody has to be compromised here. Somebody has to go behind but the face doesn't go behind, just the arm does. So you put your arm behind and now Erin comes into your space. Now the idea here is you turn your hands down, so we've got a fist, okay. And Kate brings her ... No, elbow back in. That's a girl. Hand down like ballet hands, good girl. Perfect. I don't mind if you join fingers or anything there but my objective right now is just that you're nice and tall and get you to go toward each other. So not a tip, Erin. Stay nice and tall, turn towards me with your chin and go towards her that way. No, no, look at me. That way, that's it. Kate, tip onto her. And that's where I shot Tony and Hannah as well. Exactly the same. Lift up really tall, Erin through the back of your neck and shoulders and bring your chin forward and down. Okay now not your neck, just your chin. Good girl. Now push your chin towards me, stop. Now Kate, come forward with your chin and tip onto her. There you go. And we've gotta relax your mouth, just tip onto each other very gently. Beautiful and now what I want you to do, stay there, is go lips together, give me a tiny little smile. Erin, push that chin forward and down. Okay just your chin, so don't come down with your neck, lift up really tall and just push your chin forward, that's it. Kate, tip onto her. Perfect. Okay from there, beautiful big smile girls, go. Just lean onto each other, that's the one. As soon as you lean down, perfect. I love this double. This is where I can put in a triple as well. If I put in a triple ... Yeah sure. Okay so if I put in a triple, I bring Tiffany in this way, and Kate, no this side. Don't move. What I don't want is a choo-choo-train so sit down into there. So what I don't want is three arms elbows all going in the same direction. Okay, so we don't wanna create that train and I also see turn side on, I also see that all the time. The one, two, three. I call it the choo-choo-train. It's when they're all lined up in a one, two, three. Okay, I want you to mix it up. So you need to come in so that your face is beside Kate's. So instead of Kate going toward Erin, now it's the other way around. You are going to occupy her space now. So your elbow goes back that way, you come in over here, so sit up nice and tall Tif, and then tip toward Kate. Kate's gonna dominate in the center and now you, Erin, are gonna shoot through but with this hand through that way. Okay so you're just putting different symmetry in the arms. These two have connected theirs, so they're no longer in that little choo-choo-train. They're going in the same direction. Nice soft hands down, lifting up nice and tall ladies. Everybody sitting up nice. What a beautiful family. (women laugh) okay Tiffany needs to pull out a little wee bit and Kate and pull back. Kate needs to come straighter chin this way. That's it and lift up nice and tall and Erin, you need to pull back with your shoulders and forward with your chin. So your shoulders go back, so push back. Yeah now come forward only with your face. Now you two tip toward Erin. That's it, together gently and there it is there. So, as soon as I see everybody come square into the shot, beautiful big smile ladies and then tip toward each other a little bit more. Erin, leaning, that's it. And then I'll do that mother and daughter, I'll do that sisters, I'll do that together. Now if I've got any arms I don't like, easy to trim on the outside, easy to change, but that connection there with three girls is absolutely just too easy. And I build it up. I build up the one, the two, and the three. Right? Any questions quickly before we go to break? So essentially I think the twos and threes are slower in posing but the irony is every single pose I would do a single pose on this ottoman, and I would do a single pose of all three girls in a different way. So I would either have them all lined on the ottoman in a different way or sitting on the front of the ottoman or all in that single beauty position in a single different shot. Then I would take a triple shot of all three sisters, then I would sell them, a series of the triple shot and the individual shot but I would not move my space because I have a time constraint and I want to sell an entire series very quickly just like that. So when they come in with threes like that, do you allow them to just share their series or is it just each one has to get their own But if they were sister and mother, they would always share their series in terms of, unless they want different shots. So I do offer a really mother and daughter package so it's a really neat package. What I did was I realized when I was selling the folio box, that if a mother and daughter came in, they always wanted to share a folio box. So for $900, I doubled the order and they get two for only $900 more. Because as far as I'm concerned, the images are already sold, it's been photoshopped, it's finished. They want a copy of each of them and my sale effectively just goes up $900. It's a perfect add-on But it's the same pictures? It's the same package. So if they want to change out the pictures, know it has to be more, but if they buy a $3,000 package or a $2,000 package, for $900 more they get a double package. It only costs me the cost of buying that box and those images and so I still make a profit on the up-sale of that and both girls end up with their own set of images and it makes such a difference. I would do that for a set of three years absolutely in a heartbeat because I want them all to have images because everybody out there that's got beautiful photos of mine of them, they are showing on Facebook, showing to their friends, and I'm getting their referrals and the bookings from it. So, as much as I can add on to that sale, but it's the same shot. And you're taking still 30 good ones of all three? Yeah so usually when I'm shooting two and three I show around 50 images instead of 30. So I don't double it, but I show more, definitely show more. It's always a bigger sale too. If it were a mom and two daughters Yes. Would you put mom in the middle or if she's bigger than them? It doesn't matter who's bigger. Okay. It doesn't matter who's bigger because that pose works on anybody, on any body type. So I usually put mom in the middle because she's the center and also because it just seems right to have mom in the center. If it's three girls, I make a decision. If it's a little tiny girl, I've put the little tiny one up under mom's knee so I've got two sisters on either side, a little wee girl up into mom's arms and that looks really beautiful. I also did exactly the same shot with a mom and two sisters on either side and the mom was holding a little baby on the ottoman. So the little baby was just lying in her arms and the other two children were around her on either side. That looks really beautiful and it looks beautiful with four but you just have to change up the arms so that you haven't got two arms coming in at either side. So that's where you pull the arms out and just get that asymmetry in the posing in the arms and it makes such a big difference from the front. Also the second biggest mistake everybody makes with this shot is, come back onto the ottoman girls, come back onto the position where you thought you were, is everybody sits in this shot here like this and back. So most people are sitting back onto their knees, yeah? And they're back there. I see this shot and I know that people are trying to do it. It's a beautiful shot when it's executed well. I learned this from the Estee Lauder ad where they bought those three girls and there was three beautiful women and they're all on that white back-lit. That's where I got it from about 10 years ago. I was like I'm gonna copy this shot and I had done it as a portrait shot for 10 years but I think the biggest mistake, go back on there with your arms, is everyone's down there and I see it all the time, you must be up and over your elbows, okay? That's where the image is. Because not only do they grow a foot when you lift them up and over, their arms go longer, when they're two dimensional they just look short down there. Everybody looks fabulous when they're up and over. So in the image of it, would you maybe Photoshop Tiffany's back in a little bit? Yes, yes because I wasn't watching her top and I wasn't watching her hair. But no, I wouldn't Photoshop but I would correct it and take another shot. I would look at the back of my camera and say her hair and top are poking up and I have to fix it because there's no point in fixing stuff in post-production when you can just walk up and tuck her top in and move her across, yeah. Absolutely not, yeah. Tell us what we're gonna do Okay. and then we can go to break. The trick is at the end of the day what you have to do is all day, all we've been doing with every one of our poses is lengthening the body up. So all day I have been saying sit up nice and tall, sit up nice and tall, sit up nice and tall and everybody grows about six to eight inches. Everybody looks slimmer and longer when they are up and over. Whatever is closest to the camera, looks bigger. So if your head is further to the camera then your butt, your head will look a little bit bigger than your butt. So the idea is regardless of your body weight, if it's big, push it back, okay? So all day we've been lengthening, stretching our arms, pulling arms away from the body, so regardless of how many you've got, how many you want to do, I do not pose five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, 11, 12 people because I'm not a family portrait photographer. I'm a glamor photographer. But I have posed that many people and it's a very hard thing to do. You have to really just try and get your triangles in your image. Try to get people just all simultaneously looking as good as you can and take the photograph but it's not really something ... I don't go through combinations of five, six, seven girls. If I do a shoot, when I breakdown a beauty shoot with six girls, like I've done before and I get them all to come in as a girl's day, what I do is I photograph them all individually and then the last image is just a mix-match of all the girls, usually rolling around on the floor laughing together, but you're talking about a whole lot of girlfriends that will buy one shot of their group and 20 shots of themselves, okay? So it's more of something I do at the end and I kind of play it out like this. The last time I had a group of six girls and something I'm gonna talk to you about on Thursday is I've been working with a lot of wedding photographers to get glamor shoots into the bachelorette party. So basically when you book a wedding, you can give the bride a bachelorette party glamor shoot with all of her bridesmaids, her mom, her mother in law, her husband-to-be's sister. You can get up to 10 women coming in for a full glamor bachelorette party and it only costs you the cost of a makeup artist. And as long as you educate the girls into what's gonna happen, the bride can get a beautiful free shot or whatever the package is, but you can sell to all of the other girls and it's a great way to double your income around weddings because all I'm seeing is a whole lot of little wedding studios that had these brides coming in with all of these girls and these girls are just glamor portraits. There's just 10s and 100s and 100s of them and so you really are not doing a group shot to sell a group shot. So what I do is when I get those bigger groups, I focus on the amazing individual shots and maybe the sister, best friend, mother relationship because they will spend money on those images. But then at the end, I just take a fun group shot, whether I have to get up the ladder or do what I've got to do to get all the girls in together and I give that shot as a freebee if they buy. So it's an incentive because they often won't pay a portrait price just for a snapshot of all the girls, but they will happily take it for free if they purchase a folio box. So how do you handle that time-wise when there's six or 10 coming in. Well that's exactly right, you do it in the last five minutes. Well I mean just throughout the whole shoot. Are they still gonna get 30 each if there's 10 of them? No Or do you break it down? The shoot is usually smaller, slightly smaller and you are just trying to work on really getting about 20, 12 to 20 amazing shots of each girl, yeah. Or maybe even less. If you are selling a portrait for $100 or $ and you sell two images to six girls, it's still been a big shoot day for you. It's still a good income. So you just educate them on what they're gonna get. Tell them what to bring in. Hire the makeup artist and you can even add the makeup artist fee to that session if you don't wanna cover it. But people say but what if they don't buy. Well the idea is that you take shots that they have to buy because they're so gorgeous. The idea is that if you want them to pay for the makeup artist do that but if you do it on the night of their bachelorette party, the lead-in to it is you get to go out with all of your girlfriends, spend the day, have a pamper session, have a glamor photo shoot and then go out on your bachelorette party looking gorgeous, the whole lot of you in hair and makeup. I mean how fabulous is that? And if you're doing a $800, $2,000, $3, sale from it, even better. I've got one girl in Sydney that's doing easily $3, sales off of her bachelorette parties and she offered it to 45 weddings that had booked for the year and 42 of them said yes. So that tells me the girls all getting together, they're getting tans done, they're dieting, they're preparing for Margret's wedding, they're gonna have the time of their life, they're buying new dresses, they're all getting their hair done. Of course they want to have a fabulous photo shoot together. What a great time to celebrate all the girls. So do you know what you're doing here today? Teaching. I love it, I love it. Well let me, well I'll say what ... Studio Mia is saying let Sue know that my seven year old, Anna, is using a camera in auto mode right now, poses her mom telling her don't forget the chin and shoulder. Thank you Sue. So what I really want to say is that you are not just teaching us here and I'm seeing the students here in this classroom and you are making ah-ha moments left and right for everyone here. You're affecting all of us and changing us. You're changing everyone else in the world, but I think that from Studio Mia's quote is that, you're sharing this information and you're shaping the way photographers and photography will be capturing women's beauty 10, 20, 30, 40, years from now. Cool. You are creating a legacy for photography and that's really really powerful. That's cool Thank you. Also just like to say about the bachelorette party, I will talk more about how you can do that but I must say the one thing is for me, there is always an opportunity to have a glamor shoot. When I see a women, I see a photo shoot. So when I go to a wedding I see 50 photo shoots because all I see is a whole lot of girls in brand new frocks and brand new shoes that should be photographed by me. And I just think every time I go somewhere where I see girls, I see clients. And I just don't see that how am I gonna get work. I just see the ooh, ooh. I once stood at a line at McDonald's and I said to this girl standing, and I was in trainers, I'd been to the gym, I wanted an ice coffee, I'm leaving McDonald's. I look at this girl and I'd been to the gym, I'm sweaty, I've got no makeup on, I'm wearing eyelashes of course, and I say to this girl oh my gosh, can I photograph you? I'm a photographer and I just say you are just so striking I would love to photograph you. She stood there and she looked at me and she's like um, okay. And I was like I'm sorry I'm in my gym gear, I don't even have a card on me, I can't believe that. Listen, I got a surveyor from McDonald's and I write Super Eyes dot com on a surveyor and I said what is your name? And she said Nadia and I said please call me. And I said I'd love to photograph you, just love to. I walked out, I got in the car, I giggled about it, drank my iced coffee, went back to the studio and when I walked in one of the girls were like did you just pick up a girl at McDonald's? (laughs) So she had before I'd gotten to the studio, looked at my website and called me and I just thought to myself, there is just a glamor shoot everywhere. There's just a woman who wants to look and feel gorgeous and she didn't have to look at my website and maybe she just thought she was curious because it was in the line at McDonald's. And I photographed her and it was fabulous. Do you charge her for that shoot then if you asked her to? Of course, yeah. Absolutely. I was just like I would love to photograph you. I'm a photographer and I would love to photograph you, yeah. Did she buy anything? Oh of course, yeah. Because I wasn't trying to give away anything for free or get anything for free. What I was doing was advertising myself and just saying wow, you're incredible and I would love to photograph you. So do you find that the women that are already made-up all the time She wasn't. And already look glamorous. But when you see those, are they less likely to come to you? No. Or are they just as likely? The same. Everybody wants a nice photo.