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David Zach Shoot

Hello, everybody. Today we are shooting downtown Nashville, Tennessee, with my friend David Zaki is the lead singer of a band called Remedy Dr. Thankfully, he's a good friend of mine, and he's hanging out today with this. So we're downtown Nashville. Ah, lot of nationals being rebuilt and buildings were torn down. But thankfully, this old spot still exists. I used to shoot here years ago, and it's just been one of those spots that I've always come back to have never been kicked off the property or, you know, I mean, usually do get permits and actually do have a permit today. But this has been one of those rundown spots right in the middle of Nashville in the middle of everything, really, that I've done a lot of shoots here over the years, and it's good to find a spot in your town that you can always depend on and go back to. And even after being here all these years, like you just see things differently. So it's okay to reuse the location multiple times because you'll always shoot it d...

ifferently and approach it differently. And the grass. It's a lot more overgrown this time, but I still know that I can use it. So usually with a spot like this, most people would drop by never shoot it because it, you know, quickly looks like this overgrown grass and over image to run down area. But you have tow. You just have to learn how to pick apart those areas because I see all kinds of options. Really, if I was stretching and there's probably 30 shots here that we could do with bare sky vines, grass trees, woods, textures, break graffiti, um, in all kinds of stuff. So we just see quickly how Maney shots I get in this little bitty set up. I'm shooting like it, said David today, and David is Ah, dude, obviously. And you can light dudes guys a lot differently than you can girls. And so my previous shoots. You've seen me lighting women and cheating women, and there's a whole different approach I've toward cheating women, which is generally more flattering light, more soft light. You always have to flatter girls pretty much with David. I can get away with a lot more dramatic lighting and darker type shots. He's in a rock band, so with rock, I can go a lot more moody. And so once again, we have a tiny crew. Today, I've got one person filming. I've got one photo assistant and I have David, my subject. So just basic me, my camera and a light. Um, that's a really, really small production we don't even have here. Make it today. David brought us, um, close. So super small production. This is ah, kind of help refer to shoot. I love really small Loki shoots. And I'm trying to make this, uh, something you could do at home. So grab a friend and grab a light or reflector and head out Finegold spot. And, you know, hopefully I can give you some tips today on how to shoot from anywhere. Sitting straight up, down in the middle of all those rocks and crap. Come a little lower, actually, right down here, sitting down, Yeah, Seeming final spot. Sit amongst all that. Do you walk up there and I can handy the way. We're gonna like this from the right side over here. I mean, come on, that's easy to set a light stand in. So then raised the whole thing up a couple feet just raise one of those. You know, the whole thing. Statistically, it's hitting you sweet. All right, but to eat it trip over one of those things with my camera in hand, not begin. All right, so let me take one more look. Care So two things I'm realizing really quickly. I don't love this 50 millimeter lenses to wine. I really want to get close on David's face. Um, and I've got the light set pretty nice, but it's almost too nice like it doesn't look dramatic. Or but I'm gonna go and shoot it just to get David, not both starting and rolling. And then we'll get more creative and dramatic as we go look down like that again in school. Yeah, that was nice. Didn't look right here again. Like down here. It's another thing you have to keep in mind. Like even though actually do like these shots. But even if the shots are basic and you're shooting Ah, Gallic David who's, um, or darker with his music does rock. I know that I can really push these and post production. So when I'm doing the processing in light room and capture one pro, um I know that I can really, really push the vibe of these shots basically, because right now they're really bright and colorful. But I know that in post production, I can make them not bright and colorful. Make them a lot more moody, which will be the plan once we're done. So one of the best pieces of advice I've ever heard in regards to being a subject is all shooting this actor in L. A once, and he said, every photo should be a sentence. And, uh, it's the best advice I've ever heard in terms of what to tell my subject. And I mean, the sentence could be anything, but I just love how that creatively translates. Like if you're just staring into the photo into the camera, then it gets really boring. But if you've got something that you're trying to say with your face and your expression, and then you try to change that sentence every time, um, I know this is a cool thought to tell your subjects to think about. So have people think about it. I don't know a poem reverse or ah, movie scene are, you know, a band they love like lyrics in a song could be a lot of different things, but it's a good thing to tell Your subjects have tried to make every photo of sentence as a camera again. Well, I'm using my 50 millimeter lens, so to get in fairly tight to make it a tighter shot. But once we get off this crazy rocks, I'm a switch back to my 85 because I want a lot of today to be really super up, up close and personal. I'm using an aide stop indie filter, which really decreases my the exposure. My my camera. So I'm firing on my light ful, you know, full power. But then I've got an ace up Indy. So I wanted ah, shallow depth of field behind David. So was it like nine F nine? Now I'm at 3.5. And so it a win 60th of a second swim, you know, dark in that sky with my shutter speed and then with my f stop getting a really shallow depth of field. And I like that a lot better. So yeah, I think we're good here. We've got several options and we're going to keep moving. Stand, going, staying here. Someone take a Tessa. Keep looking that way. Thank you. We're that's nice. Get that pretty light. So, like this shot? Uh, if you see the sun is kind of raking through the tree up there and then it's just creating these speckles of light in the foreground, and it just gives my shot that little They have to make it different and that purposely got the the light faded away from the wall. So I don't get too much light on the wall, and I just want to hit him. We also have a grid on soft box and a grid really focuses and direct your light much more specifically because I don't want this big, wide spread of light. I want to really thin spread. So I've get the great away from the wall hitting David. And they told David to keep facing that direction because of Felix over here. And we just get the back of his neck lit and I don't want that. I got to keep its face and shot. But then when I add all these foreground elements with the bushes and the trees of the sun leaking through, just give my shot that extra bit of Ah, interesting nous. So, yeah, I'm really, really digging it so far. And sometimes it's good. Teoh, crack a joke when your subject getting too serious. So I'm gonna give it a shot and see what he thinks. Said, can we go ahead and slowly just slowly remove your pants nice and easy. I wanted to do want to take it too fast. He's not doing it either, which I'm really disappointed. That's so cool and sometimes good. Until Telus subject to laugh is annoyingly and this loud as they can, like, just go for it. Because then what happens is they start laughing at themselves, and they feel really stupid for doing that. So, um, did you hear? May. So just give me the most annoying laugh you can. Nice as impressive. It was surprisingly high pitch. All right, these are awesome. We've guessed several that work from that set up. Take a step forward if I get lower this a little bit. Even though I'm below you. Keep your chin up so the light gets in your eyes. Yeah, keep it and keep your chin up. In life in general, not just in this photo. Well, that's cool. So I'm using the pro photo acute bee to 600 air s That's a specific pack were using. And I've got a two by three foot pro photo soft box on my light. That's all I'm using today. So I knew some of you at home are watching are probably curious. Exactly what, Like breezing and I've had this life for a long time. Ex travel with the all over the place. It's never felt May pro photos. Lighting is extremely consistent and the gear is extremely durable. I mean, I've had this thing beat up and coiled, coiled up in bags and spent all over the place, and it's still flying away, so I highly recommend it for travel shoots. I like that last time looking down there. Good. So I was trying to make this shot nice and moody, but it actually looks extremely Ah, beautiful. If I might, I might say it is a leading and so even on his face. But even though the shots like amazing straight out of camera, but I'm gonna take it, make it way more moody and darker and after the fact. But I'm at least happy that I have some amazing straight out of camera letting toe work with in a in my raw processing workflow. Get that son beaming around you. So when I did my camera right here, I get the sun in my camera, which means I can't auto focus. It's impossible cause the cameras being blinded by light so I can't auto focus. But if I lean back, I'm using my soft box to flag my camera, which allows me to see David. And then I can auto focus. So can you can always do little tricks like that, like use your light to flag the sun femur camera to focus and then moved back into the sun. And it depends on what f stop you're at right now. I'm at, ah, 3.5, so I can't move too much. But I'm At least I can focus if flag my camera with the assault box. So just little tricks like that always get to know Stay still for you right there. So there's an IPhone app. I forget the name what it's called, but it's where you use your front and back facing cameras at the same time, so you see what you see what's in front of you. But then you see what's behind you as well. And on the same note, I'm gonna do the exact same thing. I'm literally not even gonna move my my light stand. I'm just gonna flip it around to the other side and behind me. I have downtown Nashville So I'm going to go from shooting into the sun to shooting with Nashville is the bedroom. And with again, without moving my life's and I've got two different setups And he construed a little further back. I couldn't shoot a little bit wider and weaken, basically make it look like we did two entirely different set ups. But all we did was spend the light around to shoot the other direction. So now I'm flagging David with the salt box. So number one, he's not blinded. Number two. I don't get really nasty son in this face and we'll get we'll get the big, pretty lifeway building right by name. I'm gonna blur all that out Now I'm gonna crank my power because I want the sky. It's ago much darker. So the crazy thing is about firing full power in the direction the sun like going with the sun. David looks like he's like standing in front of ah painted backdrop like Nashville looks like It's like this has all been composited and Photoshopped. And so when you see this image, you'll see that it literally looks like we built this in photo shops. When you fire full power, you dark in your sky like he looks like he's standing in front of a wall that somebody painted or weak, positive. But as you're seeing it through life, so I could be a good thing or bad thing, you'll just have to your friends that no, really, I did this in camera That's cool. Years ago did a shot where I love where had the saltbox covering half the subject's face, and it looks like a Photoshopped thing. But all I'm doing is letting that light cover half his face, and I'm purposely getting that kind of strike going through his body and his face again. He's a rock star, so we can do whatever we want, right? We can be creative. It doesn't have to be perfectly lit or anything, so I am purposely breaking the rules in the scenario. And I'm also cropping above the buildings in the background cause I don't want it to look like downtown Nashville. So I just dropped my apple box a little lower something above the buildings and, uh, just see clouds, and then I've got stripes going across him. So we've turned a very, ah boring scenario with the grass and the it was beat up building in downtown actually turned into a really cool graphic, minimal shot. So anything is impossible. Anything is possible wherever you are back. Like a fraction of an inch too far. Come back. That's so cool. All right. I like it. Give me, um, you see your arms crossed, folded, and then give me even a little A little more, uh, almost like rock anger pissed, you know, but But looking over here, take one more step this way. And then two to my right here, right there, trying to get that shadow crossing right through your eye. I want to see what it looks. Let's stay there. Me? That's crazy. Crazy looking really cool. Let's do a few more tiny little incremental moves. Just move that light around your face. Come over on the other side of the light. A weird playing with light. Yeah. Good. Getting both equally burned today, Mr called. I don't know. Screw your face a little more into the shadow. Are you going? Yeah. These are cool. Like this. Part time has changed clothes. Why don't we do that? We isn't you. I'm not gonna change clothes. So already we're just three shots into today's shoot. And I already love the shot. Like if I go home right now, I'm happy we haven't been here very long at all. But again, just using the soft box to cut the light and in half for my subjects face. Um, that is not a rule you're supposed to follow. No other teacher would tell you to shoot like that, But again, I'm shooting a rock musician. It's all about creating creativity and creating graphic, nice, iconic, timeless shots. And that's what that was. We had a power line in the background with soft bucks cutting through his face. He has a real tough kind of exterior, and so I'm super thrilled with what we just got. So you see behind me, this this, uh, four photos that somebody posted on this wall I'm not going to steal. That would be a cool bag drop, but I don't want to steal their art and use that as a backdrop. So instead, what I'm gonna do is something very different is we're going to step to the side. And if you look at it from an angle, all you see is a crazy reflection of the light back there hitting it, and I imagine one. So shoot it and go to a low, Uh, f stop. It'll kind of blurred out, and I won't even see the actual are. All I'll see is this crazy reflection. So again, it's all about learning how to see and let me have a pick those little pieces apart. And I don't want the graffiti above that. I don't want the bricks. I just want this bizarre reflection, but from the side, So we'll see how it looks. Report. Have you stand right in the middle there, Actually, Can you sit on the edge right there? It's a little dusty, but I'm sorry. Come good. Another foot towards me. And then lean your head back all the way against it. Yeah, there we go. So let's put the light on the other side of him. Kind of working along with about right there. It's good vertical on us, Turn all the way down half power. And then I hit it again because that dumps, it dumps the previous power. So anyway, dumping is this likely it's hitting you. And always make sure the Towler said is facing down so it doesn't fall. It doesn't fall down the hill. Thanks. All right. Let's see if this works. Have no idea what it's gonna look like. And I'm gonna take the power to 1/4 4th is is right here in the middle. All right, So now crank the little knob all the way to the highest. Yeah, maybe with your arms. Let me see your like, Almost like a our household of a one arm, one arm up. Kind of just, uh, Justin in the frame, looking straight out again. Chin chin down a little bit. Your head doesn't have to begin to the wall. Yeah, okay. Just kind of put your arms like like you're leaning forward a little bit. Like your hands over the front. Yeah. There you go. Now look at me. I would like to spring that around like a foot towards this way and lower it. Maybe, uh, eight inches. That's good. And looked straight ahead again. A little more squint. Now, uh, lean forward a little bit with your right arm over your leg A little bit. Yeah, And try and, like, both arms forward, maybe. Yeah, it's better. All right, there. That's good. Same thing on one more time. Bring it down another foot, and then you can, uh, paying it back towards you a little bit. All right, so this shot is I'm having to kind of fight for it. I'm getting what I want out of the background, which is that kind of blurring out being a little more abstract, but with the late I'm tryingto I want him leaning for but the light to toppings. Some having a kind of adjust the light a lot to find the right angle of where I want it. So we're getting there. I'm almost there. But sometimes you just have to keep moving the lights around looking your shot to try to find it. So almost there. A couple more fighting for the shot. That's what the segment should be called David, if you can. I think I think I speak for everybody when I say we just want to see a little more nipple. So, uh huh. Just a lift. Not seeing another nip right now. See, you gotta break the serious moment sometimes. What's that? No symptoms. No matter how cool the artist is, sometimes yet to still make him laugh. And I found the label, the creative victor. They always want at least a few smiling. So you drop in a a nipple joke on a guy, and they're gonna laugh every time. 60% of the time he works every time I chain up a little bit. Yeah, that's nice. Good. So I've got just enough for the poster. Just the black edge toe. Add an interesting element to David shot, but I'm not showing the artwork. So we're not like illegally stealing anything. We're just using the literally a black black sticker, and it adds a little bit of interest. Interesting elements to the show. David's wearing a solid black shirt. He looks pretty red just sitting there. And so I'm putting him purposefully and very symmetrically in front of a lightning bolt which happens to be Lightning 100 which happens to be a former client of month. But because I'm just showing the bottom of lighting bolt, I don't lead a team to the world that we shoot this. It's a super iconic, super simple plus. Leading 100 is a red radio station. But if you see the light hitting right now, it's actually amazing, just natural light. I don't need to light this, so I'm gonna shoot it natural and with the stroke to show you the difference before and after. And we'll decide which one's better after the fact. Yeah, look right there. Like 3/4. Yeah, right there. It's cool, though. Some brake light on this warhead. The picture colic. It's almost two falling a little weird for your hands out of the sunlight. So bring with you. But I like three. Quarter your face over here. It's so why be the shot? Just natural light. I love it. Pull one. Nia would put one a little higher. Get your hands back in the shade, though. Get up against the like. That's a cool shot. Okay, so I'm gonna line the alignment of your knee with the lighting. Bobo Honda Sony a little more slanted, all right. Their face We're looking just pointing that way, and then pull your head off that wall There, You need back up a little bit. All right, there need back up a little more. So cool. Love a knee up a little more time. All right, There. Now we're gonna Turner stroke back on and see the difference in the two. Both shots work, booth, or extremely a graphic and interesting. But in this case, I really like the natural Aisha. And with the full power stroke, like both shots, give me some inching results. But now I'm tryingto basically split the difference and draw the strobe with a little more natural light mixed in. And, uh, they want three options. So natural light, strobe, But then half and half It's like Arnold Palmer have sweetie half limited. So what we're doing right now I'm gonna scoot back to get full body. That's cool. Bring both knees up a little bit now. Trust me. Yeah, it's harder now. You see? One higher like mate won down to your side. One hand? Yeah. You guys be careful, obviously, and not that far out. And then I was a camera, that trend And then right hand on on a knee and find if it's in the light There you go. Bring your left hand behind your need of so I don't see it at all Yeah, Yeah, There you go. I love that now But the left hand in the shade almost got it. Not so far like yeah, like since we raise It's, like, eight inches. The whole thing. It's just in my shot A little bit. Get it out. Yeah, that'll work face towards me again. So I love the shot because I've got several things going on. I get the lightning bolt, creating a really graphic image. I've got light bouncing off the silver Tink. I've got sunlight creeping in I've got strobe light creeping in and mixing several things. I purposely got one hand in the sunlight, one hand in the shade. It just adds to that very graphic kind of iconic shot. And I know that once I turn these, especially the black and white that they'll be really, really killer shots. But of course, you have to have someone like David just pouring on the vibe. I mean, don't you just see her now. Just pouring it on. Yeah. How do you do it? David's are. Yeah, it's cool. We're good. I love that shot. No cool lighting boat coming out of your head. Several options that was brighter. That was with full through has come naturally. That's cool with several different options. School to the closer. So several versions of it. So we're gonna do this shot one more time. I've done this before with another girl in one of these classes, but David's in the leaves. I'm gonna be in the leaves. It's almost like a a two person dance where we just kind of barely move and try to catch the eye with a camera. And I'm gonna be f 1.2, which means that everything is gonna be out of focus except for David's eyes. Hopefully, um, so with each shot like pick a spot, stay still. Move. Stay still. Because if you keep moving, I won't be able to catch the focus. So it's like you move, I'm gonna catch your eye, catch your eye so and I'll get in here and I'll just try to find you with my camera. I'll see if we can get that one leave. Sometimes I just end up pulling one leaf off. Yeah, area that's cool. Growing a spy movie all of a sudden. Now look out towards the street. When you're shooting F 1.2, you want to put your focus dots, I forget what those things are called, but you want to put it in the camera where your person's eyes you don't wanna. When you're shooting at 1.2, you don't have time to move your camera because about time you've moved your camera to refocus, you've lost focus. So put the DOT right on there. I in your camera. So that way, if your auto focusing that way, you can just focus, click, focus, click, focus, click. So that way you're not losing. You're not able to move too much and lose focus. So I'm gonna put my little what are the sinks called a little dot focus point Syria. See, I can focus, click, focus, click, and I don't have to move my camera too much. You hear my focus beep, and then my shutter click like almost instantaneous. And that's the idea, like a camera. This time she went straight on, so intimate. Used to seeing you visas here is it's a cool shot. So Dave and I are friends. He lives down the street or kids or best friends. They play together every day. So me and David are usually riding bikes or running down the street, chasing our kids or sitting at Baseball Gate Little League baseball games together. So it's really funny to be in this context with David being all serious and, you know, because we just hang at home and play with our kids. So this is the new a new thing for us. Serious slips together in a sit down a little bit. One more thing. The count of three scream. You ready? Now, like you're bursting out of the leaves, you're gonna scream as you're doing, charity. It is those, um yeah, screw good screen. And we're good. I feel good. We've got, like, eight setups in just over an hour, so I feel super happy. Maybe two hours. So I just wanted to say thanks to my friend David. Check out remedy drive when you can. There on ITunes, they're all over the internet and check him out on social media. Follow him on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook. All that get stuff. Their music's incredible. Yes, he's a good friend of mine, but I'm also a big fan, so check him out. Remedy. Dr. Remedy, dr dot com. Right. So remedy dr dot com, who was shot a lot using one camera, just me and one assistant in my life. So one camera, one light. Uh, it doesn't have to be complicated. You can shoots him. Simple natural light. Um, but that's whether this class is all about Hopi in Jordan.