Lessons

Lesson Info

Bridal Prep Setup

The first thing that you need thio very mind is when you first when you get to the bridal prep you know you want to make a very comfortable first impression very good first impression because the last thing you want to do I mean you've made a connection with the bride, right? You made a connection with bryce that's all cool, but you know, the rest of the bridal party don't actually know you, so you know they're not actors so they're not used to having the camera in front of them or having a camera even if it's like at a distance pointing at them and filming them so you need to find ways to, you know, really accommodate and make them feel comfortable because then you'll be getting those moments that you need all right? And then the experience is worth wall iran's cool iran's happy and it's all fun and you're not gonna have any tension because we have tension and beginning says such a drag and you know, you want to avoid all that you want to get in there really have a good time. Okay, so...

um so when I arrived at a bridal print I actually answered the broad approach with minimal gear so usually what I do is I just broke up with one back, so can I just get my backpack maybe on those those men for her case is it ok we're getting there so what I'm demonstrating here is what is not ideal it's not going to help you to make this is what I think anyway I think it's important to just when you get to the broads prep you answer with minimal gear so it's not overwhelming right so this is an example of like something where I don't recommend you do you get all your gear you kind of get everything you get everything you need right you think it's going to do one trip right get in there and shoot so you broke up you know like you know on the door like this and you look up like this hi hey doing I'm ready hey I think they do and they're like I mean look at me I mean like I just think you know if the mom opens the door and she first looks at this guy with all this gear look she's going to be nice you know, obviously it's going to be polite but I can assure you they're probably going to be a little bit started like oh wow you could all this gear okay? You know who you are you're the video person a k a koko so what I would recommend is just bring the bare minimum right so let's say we'll read them on a pod and let's remove just give you the camera because I wouldn't have the camera okay that's what I was your bring them in a pod I would leave my slider and my tripod in the car I'm obviously make sure parked you know quite close so I'm not you know have to lag my gear up the street or um a long distance and I basically broke up I arrive at the door and knock at the door with this much gear you're probably thinking like what's the point of this but honestly I find that if you just arrive with minimal gear just as a first impression it just helped to arrive and you introduce yourself you go in and then I'll now show the next step in terms of setting the sane and, you know, making that connection with everyone so everyone's comfortable I'll put this down give you that so I walk in I made you know, probably the mom has opened the door and, you know, it's important like straightaway you introduce yourself, you know, with a smile and you're warm and you know, you show that you're you know that you're here and you're excited as you are and you just walk in and the first thing that what you shouldn't be doing these get your camera out straight away what you should be doing is just break the ice gets there walking there so everyone just do what you're doing like this pretend like everyone hey, hey doing amalfi on I'm I'm here to film the winning hey doing no good, eh? Rebecca hey, good to see you, he's feeling that's good. You're high on alpha nice to meet you it's right? Yes has everything going? Oh, good. So I'm just breaking the ice here. I kind of like got stuck into the what to say it's like a studio environment like uh but the I what? I'm trying to the point I'm trying to make he's when you enter the the bridal prep scene is thatyou wantto basically make it connection with everyone you want introduce yourself to the make up artist and that will take you a long way because there he working with you it's a team environment so you know get all high he done on alfio hey, lyndsey hey doing nice nice to meet you. Cool. And then you know, I'll just quickly go around and say hello to everyone and make her make a connection and just break the ice and I probably spending I mean it just, you know, just small talk chat, you know, and what I do is I arrive at the broad if vehement arrival it's two pm usually allocate, like in fifteen minutes before just arrived so you use that time to break the ice and get your equipment in and I usually do two trips so I bring like that money with the money part in the bag and I set that down I come in and I talked to them and I just establish a bit of a connection and making fool comfortable and they they can basically make a human connection not just to go over the camera it's alfio you know, like he's arise not gonna creep until I do funny faces and impersonations like oh, that guy's weird so that's important so yeah just continue what you're doing so good. So now what now that they're like doing the thing that busy you know it's bridal prep you know, they frank frantically getting ready what you need to do is assess obviously the space and as I said, I pointed that out that it's really important to assess your space and and see where the light's coming from so we have a light source here this's an example I'm goingto show you let's turn that light on let's pretend that light was on I think it's on the name yeah bit funny I kind of got a yeah you touch you did uh there we go so I'm just turning the lights on is there another look and someone puts um some of the lamps on no one here can that one turn on is well is that a lamp probably thinking what he's doing turning on the lights on and I'm going to demonstrate something it's really important okay, okay, okay. And we've got the block that's all we've got the blinds up but light coming through the first thing he I can see is that there's some mixed mixed lighting we've got you we've got the tungsten lamps we've got the light coming through the window and obviously in most cases, you know, in other cases we wouldn't get this really nice light coming through and then the make up artist to get some life because I need light to do the makeup. They'll probably have some house lights on, right? Yes. Is that true? Thank you. Will you be by window? But if the window is not giving you a lot of light, you turn the lights on, right? Okay, that doesn't work for us. We don't make sliding, but does that mean you go in there? Say, okay, so just, you know, that's not going to go down. Well, you know, just go in there and yeah, I was gonna turn the light off, right? Stuff you on this? No. So what you should be doing is, like it's like a mission. Impossible things like, so, you know, I'll say, um hey, is it all right with you if if we turn off that land and then we maybe open up the blind a little bit, would that give you enough light to do the make up? You sure? Because otherwise I do have, like, a little lady panel, but if if that's cool, so there you go, that's a simple is that you just you walked in? You made that connection, you've introduced yourself, you're polite, you've got etiquette. They appreciate that. Andi respect what you're doing as opposed to just going in there going for the kill going, not just going to changes this little little simple of courtesies just goes a long way to get what you need because he working with them they're they're part of the team like the photographer is the photography is not your friend, right? You make up artist, your friend two there, they're doing their job, teo, yet, and also prepare the bride, right? And if the bride's not ready on time because of the makeup within that affects you no, I mean fix everyone, so you need to have the mentality you working as a team, right? They're all your friends, so okay, so I'm going because as you can see, like she's got like this tungsten light on her and she's also keep you going zoom in you know I mean like it's not it's not it's not appealing you know you don't want to have like tungsten and and natural light mixing in on the skin turns you want balance the lot this all happened really quickly you go in say hi you know, few smiles you you doing, you know hey, that what it's all that being polite and showing courtesy and the same thing will happen here with the headrest you know, I've introduced myself said hi, lyndsey hey, don't hesitate going good, good, good. I haven't met you what he done with sophina sarafina I've got it in your problem. I'm sorry s o just point this way I'm blocking so there's a lam p I mean it's kind of pointing out let's just assume it's kind of like shining like tungsten light on her and that you got the natural light as well I will do the same thing all balance the line I'll say hey, lyndsey, is it possible that we turn this light off so I could just balance the light? Yeah it's not gonna affect you. Okay, cool. You sure about that? So just turn it off now if you want to keep the the lamp on because you need to but let's just say this is human saline should you need it so do you say no cause a massive argument no, you don't do that what you could do is can someone hand me on the blue joe that I have there it is I'm saying five years and these guys they saw in the bowl thank you so much thes and blue gels and what they do is they filter the light so they you change into daylight you feel to them so I won't cut one that just to demonstrate that you could use jails if by any chance you're not in the position to turn off the light okay, especially for we spoke about it and you gave me a weird look because I don't think it's cold that down lights, but they called down lines, but they're basically lights that they caught quite harsh and they just shined down like a spotlight there's little spotlights and they usually tungsten. What you could do is if you need those lights on, you could use these jill's and that will basically balanced the lights of daylight's you've got the natural light coming through and you've got the you're converting the tungsten today light as you can see if you wanted to see him in you've now what you've done, you now balance the live here were you balanced the light of day light okay now this'll light and particularly slide as an example is not a good example, but you know, assuming it's like giving off light through like outside on the side you know you could just basically caught a peso in your kid you should have paris's with your your your jail and that's what I do I have my audio kid and I have all these little bits and pieces my my cables and my scissors and I just I'm just gonna get rid of this I made my point I'll give it to the lycee thank you very much. Okay, so basically you need to balance the light so once you do that then you pretty much ready to go you're you're ready to shoot you know you need to sit where the light's coming from so in some cases maybe you need to you need to actually change the position ofthe let's say the headrest right now at this stage we gotta watch out of the room yeah, now the light's coming from here right? So you need to think about how is that in relation to the subject that you're shooting? So we've got the makeup artist there now obviously being a normal that's a home or a venue the lights were coming from the studio they're not there okay? So at the moment there is a little that there is in decent light on sarah sarafina I'll get half back remember names sarah phenom is enough like that, but if I come here we have to turn some of these lights off maybe maybe just one of them this I can show you the difference when I'm actually changing the direction of the the subject okay that's better maybe then this one here okay, here we go so just quite dark like there's not a lot of light there right so what I would do is firstly let's and more natural light come through we've got the lives we've got the liberty here tio use the natural light it's really beautiful I mean, you know bridal preps scenes and wind have this type of natural light coming through all the time so so you just basically need need to assess your arm your arm your light source and worked with it okay there's another light here thiss khun stay on but I'd probably would turn it off because just in case you know they come here and they start looking at these these flowers and might wantto adjust them or something and if you want to get a quick shot you want to get a quick shot and then same toe just turn the light off just hold it, hold it, hold it you know you want to direct people you just want to do this you know what? I was gonna die? Yeah go for the kill so okay, so now now we've got with balance will almost now we balance the light we've got one color temperature which is great with with with establish a connection with everyone does make him feel comfortable said hi everyone so everyone's going to do there anything now you know they're not going to be kind of distracted by this god with his camera this menopause I was doing it's like they get a bit awkward, you know, especially if you don't know someone got a camera so that's all being taken care off so now everything's happening I can't like wave rebecca reza the moment I can't leave her there but the life is this is actually like enough light on the hair which is cool but if I want to get like, if she's like for example maybe one of the bridesmaids comes here in chats with with you know, with sarafina yeah whoa then you know you're not gonna be able to get the expression you want to get her her face, so what I would do is all would firstly ask, but I would position her perpendicular and ninety degrees with a light okay, so then you get a bit of hair on the start line on the hair and also a little bit on the face now you can use the concept, the concept ofthe the direction, the lining that I demonstrated in the interview, right? So you don't have to have it like exactly ninety degrees you could probably have it like a slight angle if you want right to get some shape so what I would say is okay hey lyndsey is it all right? I know I'm being a bit of a pain the butt right but is it alright if we like reposition cellophane on just so I can get a better shot so I was just thinking you had to get up okay and this is totally fine to do if you approached this way they'll be totally fine you know obviously if they kind of stressing in a hurry just pick your moments you know what I mean but you said look I just wanna kind of cool that work for you um um question a lot of the mirrors to have stands they have they are and that's that's the industry they do have like a little stand so if they don't then I wouldn't compromise them in terms of doing what the job is if it affects that the process of getting this done their hair done then I wouldn't interrupt that enforced issue but in this case I'm assuming that because lately I've had these mirrors in the broader problem have had like the legs so I just like said okay look can we just position here and that's cool cool we'll just pretend that the mirror is there but again if you're not able to move the mirror don't force the issue there's. So much other stuff happening in the broader print that you can get. Okay, cool. So now that's. A lot better. Now. I've got her in a position where I can get good elimination on her face is decent, lining on good lighting on her face. There is some light on her hair, so I can get a variety of shots. Um, with the hip prep. Yeah, cool. Okay, so all right, so everyone's doing the thing, they're all chatting. There hasn't been a fun. I'm going to get my mom a pod and my camera and start shooting.