Transcripts
1. Course Introduction: Hi, I'm Bernie Raffi and welcome to part two of my creative portrait, of course, which is really all about getting creative with the port writes on us. As such, it's suitable for all levels of photographers, from beginners to advanced. In this course, you can follow me on over a dozen live, portray sessions and see the kind of images I come up with. Plus, there's a couple of image walk furs demonstrating certain techniques, such as negative spice in the live sessions, or learn how to make the most of natural light when taking photos of individuals, Children and families. And also you will discover some of the ideas when using off camera flash, for example, how to get a completely dark background outdoors if you're lucky enough to photograph any pregnant women or might do so in the future, there's some interesting live maternity sessions with the beautiful and talented and heavily pregnant model Katie Green. You may have come across one of my previous courses on your short to pick up some great tips from those sessions. Anyway, I sincerely hope you enjoy the course as much as I had in making it bye for now.
2. Learn about the positive impact of ‘Negative Space’ in portraiture: Hello again, my lovely students. Well, in this video on negative space, there's no life photo sessions. No, I'm not getting lazy. I just felt it would be more useful for you to see a wide range of images that incorporate this compositional technique rather than just a few from a single photo session. So as I talk in this video, I'll bring up some of my past images that incorporate negative space. There won't be much discussion of the images. It's not really necessary. The technique itself is quiet, self explanatory on is not at all difficult to do anyway. So what exactly is negative space? Well, it's a concept that's been used in our design and photography for many years, and it can bring a new creative edge too many photos, sometimes turning an average photo into an outstanding one. And it's not at all complicated. Well, it can't be if I can understand it negative space. It's simply the area surrounding the main subject in a photo, and it can give your photos and entirely different Phil and create an atmosphere. That photo of the same subject filling the flame will lack, but the absence of content doesn't mean the absence of interest. In fact, negative space often adds interest as it can Jorda viewers I and place a stronger emphasis on the subject B a person, a flower and interesting graphic or a single tree in a landscape. Negative space also provides a little kind of breathing room, giving the viewers eyes somewhere to rest on, preventing your images from appearing too cluttered with unnecessary detail. All of this can add up to a more engaging composition. Maybe like this. Ah, that's better. I've got a bit more space to breathe now. Sometimes negative space could give your photos a feeling of peace and quiet or loneliness , even on its maybe a great style to try. If you tend to always feel defamed with your subjects, mastering the use of negative space can take a little time and practice, probably because we're so used to focusing on the main subject in a scene that it can seem strange to treat it almost like a kind of afterthought. But doing so will make you consider each element in your seen more carefully leading to much stronger compositions. Now be generous with the amount of empty space you leave and don't feel you have to cram something interesting into every square inch of the flame. It's amazing how a small change in composition can make a big difference to the effectiveness effectiveness of a photo. Generally, you want to look for clean, Uncluttered areas, maybe with a graphic element like this. If the background is a little dull, it sometimes works to induce a background with a splash of color. Now I found that usually it works best with subject on 1/3 But that's not always the case. It's just a guide. Getting the balance right between your subject and the amount of negative space can be tricky. And of course it is while the subjective. But it's something you'll get better at with time and practice. I love to use negative space on the opportunities are endless. So I hope you have enjoyed looking at some of my work. And maybe, just maybe, some of the images have inspired you for your own photography. By for now, see you in the next video
3. 6 reasons why you should mostly take portraits in landscape orientation: again. Which way should you hold the camera when taking portrait landscape or portrait orientation ? Well, of course, there's no absolute right and wrong way of doing it. But in this video, I'd like to share my thoughts with you about this on straight away. I'll admit that for a long time now I've had something of a 1,000,000,000 my bonnet about this topic ever since I noticed years ago that I wasn't taking hardly any portrait in the portray orientation. So I'm going to be quite opinionated here, and I want to tell you why I think you should nearly always take portrait in the landscape orientation. Now, when you look at the photos I have taken in this course on no, my other courses. If you've watched them, you'll notice I really take photos in portrait orientation. Go a few, but not many. Generally speaking, I just think that landscape orientation portrait's look better now. I'll go through the reasons one by one. But remember this. This is just my opinion. Other photographers may not agree with May. Who cares? What did they know? Any way you can make your own mind up after listening to my reasoning, first of all, consider him how we view two photos. Fewer and fewer people are printing out their photos these days on, although we're now in the age of the smartphone, most of you watching this will be using DSLR or Mirallas cameras, and chances are you'll be viewing the photos on the tabular or monitor, or even a TV. These devices are rectangular, so it stands to reason the images were a little better when they feel the screen better. Here's a combination of similar images in both orientations. If you're watching this on your phone, by the way, turn the phone around and watching landscape orientation. I'm sure you'll agree that the landscape orientation photos have far more impact. Well, it's obvious, really, isn't it? They're far more suited to the rectangular shape of the screen. So anyway, that's the first reason it can happen, sometimes even to may. I thought I look a landscape orientation photo afterwards on the computer and thinking maybe that would have looked better in portrait orientation. Now, at that point would never think to myself only if only are taking it the other way around. Know that thought just doesn't enter my head because all I have to do is cropped the photo imposed processing. Sure, the act of cropping would lose me a little bit of resolution. But today's cameras are plenty of megapixels, so it's really a non problem. Well, not unless I wanted to make a huge poster size print on that's very rare. It's very, very easy to copper landscape orientation image to make it portrayed orientation, and that gives you an element of safety. But try doing it the other way around, changing an image from portray orientation to landscape orientation. It can't be done well, no, unless you want to spend hours reconstructing half the photo using photo shop. Once you've taken a short in portrait orientation, you're stuck with it. There's no going back. So that's the reason Number two. Quite often, the photos that linger in your memory and also in the memories of your family, are the ones that have a storytelling out element to them on. That might be a place or location where you visited, or maybe something else going on, or there's other people in the scene. The problem with many portray orientation photos is just no enough room for the storytelling. And so the images like context, you end up with just a portrayed that fills the fame. Okay, It may be a very lovely portrait with beautiful lighting, but it won't often promote much emotion in the viewer, other than just being impressed with the quality of the shop. In many cases, that's fine. I've done that a lot in this course myself. But landscape orientation gives you more scope for incorporating MAWR information in a photo on showing the context in which the portrait was taken, whereas in a portrait orientation photo, you mostly just end up with more of the subject body in the photo, so it doesn't really buy you anything. You could have done that by just taking a couple of steps. Back in the previous video, I talked about using negative spice on how it can add drama to images on focus of viewers. Attention on the subject. Now you might have noticed in that video that all but one of the example photos were taken in the landscape orientation. It just stands to reason that it's far more difficult to incorporate negative space when using the portray orientation. Outdoor portrait's will often include too much sky or too much of the ground. Obviously, that very much depends on the circumstances of the shop. But generally speaking, I would say that negative space will expect much better on is much easier to achieve when shooting landscape orientation. Negative space is just one type of composition, but of course, there's other little compositional tricks that could also improve your photos on. To my mind, they're all much more effective and easy to incorporate when using landscape orientation. Uh, for example, repeating patterns in the background could look great. Could be trees, windows, arches, etcetera. So I go no lines in the foreground leading into your subject, also focusing on your subject with a wide aperture to blow the background, something you you will have noticed. I do a lot that's also more effective in landscape orientation simply because there's likely to be more of the background, you know, in the shop. So that's about it. Those are the reasons I've been issued in portrait orientation amongst professional photographers. The conversation sometimes turns towards developing a style. Now a style was something that usually evolves over a period of time on a certain style can give the photographer a slight edge, especially when it comes to picking up customers. Landscape orientation, in my opinion, makes it easier to develop that style. But remember these. These are only my opinions, but anybody disagreeing with them is, of course, totally wrong. Bye for now.
4. Follow me on a family location photo session in a local park - Part I: Hi again in this video, I'm going to be taking photos of a family on location in the park Task Mom and Dad on three Children. Now, the things that I'm gonna be mostly concerned with, obviously the light is going to be a sunny day. I think so. I want to keep them in the shade or turnem backs are towards the sun. So I'll be shooting toward the light composition. I'm not too faster bar. It's a family group, so it is gonna be a limit to what I can do there. Onda. Obviously there's a side. The light composition on deposing is going to be very important. I don't just want to line them up in a row and take shots that way. I want to try and get some creative posing, posing, going to make the photos look good to make them look relaxed on to flatter the fat family. We will want to look good in our pictures as far as the settings are concerned, and the camp and the lens I'm using a 35 to 100 mil lens, but this is on a 4/3 camber, so that's the equivalent of a 72 200 in old film terms or four flame terms, Um, using a flash on board, which will give me a bit of fill flash just to fill in a little bit of shadows on that's going to be set to t T l on minus one point the power. So I'm dining down the power just to throw a hint of life. I don't like them up with the flush. I'm gonna be shooting about f four. I would think there's five of them, so I have to be careful with the aperture to make sure that all in focus is a 4/3 camera, so there's a slightly wider depth of field. If you're using an I. P S e crop sensor camera I PSC camera, you really want to probably use maybe a 45.6 just to be sure that everybody is in focus on If you're shooting with a full frame camera, I'd probably go for a 5.6, maybe FAA, But a lot depends on the post as well. If you got the minute line, then you couldn't open up the shutters, open up the aperture a little bit more If they're kind of in rows behind each other, then you really want to, uh, close down the aperture to make sure everybody is in focus. So I think that's about it. The family. You're gonna be here soon. Let's see how we get on. Okay. We're here with the lovely Stephanie on you, Dylan, Jamie and Ella. Andi. You know, it's named after the famous jig. Anyway, we're gonna start off in this shaded area, Onda. We walk around the park to a few different poses. Teoh, we get on, okay? You already, guys? Yeah. Yeah. Okay, so we've got a nice shaded area. The trouble is, we've got a bit of dappled sunlight coming through the trees, which we want to try and avoid. First of all, I wanted step on the ground with the legs, maybe one leg tucked under the other one. So she's just doing that now turned to the side as well of us also asked to keep one foot on the ground. Then I'm showing you how I want him to sit next to Steph with his legs out to one side on. Then I wanted other to sit in between the two of the Guinness is being a bit uncle particular eso I wanted l A. To sit in between to try and form a nice kind of triangle with heads between her and her mom and dad. Next, I want to join me to come and sit just behind his dad, sitting up with his legs to one side. It doesn't really do that just just yet, on Dylan, just behind his mom and died needing behind them again, forming that kind of pattern between him, his head and his mom and dad's. Now one of the problems is Hugh has his legs sticking out, so I've asked him to bring his legs in. I'm showing him here how I wanted to sit. Sometimes it's easier to show people than it is actually describe it to them. Onda. I asked Jamie to come out of a bit as he is too low, and I wanted again to put his legs out to decide again. I'm showing him I want him to do that. Guinness is being a little bit uncooperative again. I'm asking Jay Dylan to come up a little bit. That is then gone. Lara, just waiting for Guinness now to realize we're making a serious video and to stop messing around. So Guinness is now in the imposition on I'm ready to take a shop Now. The other thing that sport and it's slightly is Steffes foot sticking out. So if you if you kind of bring it up, give your foot flat on the ground, being you for a little bit more, that's here. Perfect. I didn't come up a bit higher, right? Yeah, this is quite a nice shot, but there's a few things I'm not entirely happy with. I don't like the fact that we could see the bottom of Ella's red shoes. They're sticking out. Also, Jamie is a bit low on further back than I'd like, and I rectify that in the next post on. I did ask Dylan to raise himself up, but I guess this position he's in now is a little bit more comfortable. So he's gone a little bit too low for my liking. Let's try one without Guinness cause he's obscuring you a bit. But say what? Night, Jamie, Come on. The other side next to Mom has tried out. Okay, that's a good Elikann. Sees your food bomb of your feet. You're gonna go. You're gonna turn your feet and that's it. Yeah. Sly looks about, uh, lovely. That's really nice. Yeah, that's what she's all that stuff. Time. Why? Didn't come off a bit. Yeah, This is a lovely photo, I think much better than the 1st 1 with Guinness. Although if I was being really critical, there's a couple of things I'd like to change. I don't like the way Dylan's arm is dangling over his dad's shoulder. Also again, I don't like the way Steph Psalm is in front of Ella. And I have normally asking to put that down a little bit. Yeah, I love the way Jamie is leading into his mom much better position and in the first shot. And it really shows a closeness of all the family notice. All their heads are fairly close together as well. Looks great. Lovely photo. Yes, they worked out quite well. I think one of the reasons I chose this location is that we're in the shade. We're looking out into the light. So we've got this top shade cover here. But also the background is quite long. Why away? And so we should get a nice kind of blurry background. Let's go to some of us. Okay. For this short, I thought would get a family just walking towards the camera on notice. Well, well. Placed them to what? The sun behind them So that you can see that Nice women light of on their faces. A dilemma here on positioned them against the trees. So we got a kind of darker background. You don't really want to do this against a sky. Otherwise, the tops of their heads will just disappear. So we got a darker tone background. You can see that lovely rim like around here. So let's give this a try. Gonna walk towards me Doesn't look in the camera. Just look up. May look until you look at the look at each other. Look. Look like past May on, just chat and talk amongst yourselves. Okay? Any guys I use burst mode on the camera in conjunction with continuous focusing to take several shots as they walked. This looks great. Really pleased with it. You can see what I was talking about now and getting a darker tone background to bring out the best of the rim lighting. I did ask the family not to look at a camera, which I think looks better, but I think I forgot also, I made a slight mistake with the direction of the light, as the sun isn't directly behind them. So there's a bit too much like hitting their chicks. But never mind. No. Still a great shot. So now I'm going to get family to run towards me. These were going to be a bit hit and miss you, especially the Children. I tend to color. Look down. Is there running? Okay, let's take all hold hands that will keep him in the line. Make sure you get the trees behind them. Come on. This way. A bit more. Okay, go. Come to the old way. Yeah. This running one looks great, doesn't it? And hopefully you'll agree with me that there's a bit more emotion involved when they look at each other. Using burst mode is essential to give you the best choice of expressions on body positions . I didn't film it, but we tried to another running one this time with Guinness. I'm really pleased with this one to they just look so happy. Don't know. And as a viewer. It can help to bring a smile to your face. I split this family location session into two parts, so that's the end of part one. The same session continues in Part two.
5. Follow me on a family location photo session in a local park - Part II: Yeah, I like this area in the park because of the top shade provided by the trees and also the fact that a family can be quite a distance from the background. So first of all, on positioning que, with his back to the tree facing is gonna be saying, facing sideways from the camera position. And I've asked him to hope in his legs. And I'm showing now how one Steph to pose kind of honor hip and leaning on his name. I prefer it is lining on a hit because otherwise she's just sitting on a bum, content to get squashed. And this position now will put her face close to Hughes as well. I asked Jamie to stand against the tree cause he's a short of the brothers, so I thought I would look better on Dylan's gonna go behind his mom and dad, needing down in a moment L. A. In the front because she's a smallest. I prefer to have her in front, and I'm now showing her Jamie how to stand. So I wanted just to look relaxed. Stand against a tree, maybe 1/2 hand in his pocket, his leg one leg crossed over the other, so that looks pretty good. I'm going quite a long way back because I want to give myself a much chance of blowing the background assed possible. So I've gone back and zoomed in. Yeah, this has turned out quite well noticed the posing positions where the heads of Steph, Dylan and Jamie, former kind of diagonal line, which looks. And also Steph Dylan, who and Ella forming that kind of shape with their heads and also looks nice with Steph Sand on huge Knee just to show that kind of relationship on the legs out to decide. Nice photo and please, with that you now have our Steph and you to go back and walked towards the Children on dime , focusing on the Children and Stephan. You should be a little bit blow here, and the important thing is for them to look at the Children. No, at the camera. So while the Children were still sitting there and I was in the same position, I just thought I take the opportunity to take the Children on their own. It's away the worst, bearing the shots within a certain scenario, if you can, I think really special about this one. Just quite a nice quiet and I shop okay for this shot will do all the family together again on it being kind of fun picture against the wall on. So I think we'll do it in high, older as well. That usually that's good. So here and stuff sand in the middle. Jamie, you come on this way next to Dylan and then enter next to Jamie. Sadly, your shoulders one. Ella the younger says Well, so you're gonna go flat against the wall, okay? Getting really close. Come over this way, Tiny. But that's it. Perfect. Now I think I'll ask him to do. Has everyone fold their arms and put one leg over the other? The same leg? Yeah. You got the wrong leg. I don't. I know you had it. You did have it. My fault. That's it. Yeah. Look at that. Perfect. The straw days. That's great. They said they were in the shade, so it was the lightless. Quite nice. Yeah, this is quite a nice shot. Just a bit of fun, Really. People do like to lean on things, makes him feel a little bit more comfortable on notice. the high older works quite well and the fact they've got their legs or crossed over in the same direction and arms folded and I will look into each other. Uh, try me now look, Donatella Yeah, this is worked out quite well. You would have heard may ask them to look at each other, and I think that adds a bit more emotion into the image on. People usually give a little smile or laugh when they look at each other, but for our final shot, I'm using this child's play area. Onda. The reason I've chosen this is first of all, we got this top shade cover, which is great, and we're in. The Scheide on the Sun is coming from the back, shining through this way. So, as you see, everybody's got a nice kind of them light of obamacare. Now let's go. As far as opposing is concerned as a little bit higher, that gives a nice shape to the picture, and Jamie's a little bit higher. Aziz. Well, I joined me. Everyone's in the line looking good. I think you if you kind of come sit up right because it's modern colony, you have to remember anything closer to the camera is gonna look bigger. So when you didn't come when you stick, see it like that. Your feet look bigger. Well, here we got in this trial days. That's looking nice. Yeah. Ellis has blowing around in the wind. My hair does as well. He had a lighting looks beautiful when the shot doesn't it with the vin like being emphasised, but a dark tones of the trees behind the nice soft light on their faces and catch light in their eyes, provided by top shape. I probably didn't need feel flashier, but used it anyway. Also, like the diagonal line formed by the foreheads of the back on the triangle formed by Steph , Ella and Jamie. And they've got great expressions as well after my silly joke about my hair blowing in the wind. But it's a lovely happy family photo, please, with it. So that's about it for this film. I hope you enjoyed it and find it useful. Thanks very much to Steph, you, Dylan, Jamie and Ella. You'll great. See you again. Sometimes owned by Thank you for now. See you in the next video.
6. Follow me on a location photo session with two young boys in a local park: Hi again. We're here with Liz, Larry, logo and Ben. I quite like this time, haven't I? Yeah. On in this session, it's all about photograph in the boys. Andi older will be taken photos of the whole family. I won't be videoing those no shots. So in a nice kind of shaded area like we were in the previous film, we've got a bright, overcast day, which is quite nice for poor traits. So we're just gonna have some fun on, see what we can do with then and Logan. Okay, here we go. Logan, you're gonna sit. Let me think you're gonna sit down on the ground facing that way, okay? Facing that way on, uh, Ben, you're gonna sit with you back to him. Okay? Put you back together. Let's have a little first of all, let's do one little shot like this. Let's see how they look on camera. Perfect. Looking happy. Good. Right now, Logan, you're you're gonna push against against Ben. Don't start yet, buddy. On Ben. You've got to stop him from pushing. Okay? Now you're gonna push him. Pushes out as you can, but a guy push Push your shop. That's it. going to see if you can move him now. Across the park. Go. You get a little push, okay? You got him. So you're gonna be laying down like this, Okay? When your son No. Good. You're gonna come on here. First of all, I next to him, just like next to him. Okay? We're getting really close together. But now, Logan, you're gonna get up, and you're gonna lie on his back. You know, they right on his back flat. Put your head this side. Here. Come out. Come forward. Quick. Forward. Really quick. That's it. Yeah. Putting the boys in this city position ensures natural smiles rather than just asking them to smile. The trick here is to put a smaller person on top making sure they come more after the fun as when they're first positioned. They tend to hang back a bit, which doesn't really work so well. Also asked them to put their head to one side rather than on top. That looks a lot better. Well, this is a nice little spot here because we've got the cloud cover from the trees giving us a bit of top shade. Also got this nice little slope so I can kind of get a bit lower. I want to try and get them. Not too much sky behind, just using the trees behind. So let's see, What we can do is stay there. Guys actually come over this way a tiny bit into the middle. I am a bit more. Then we'll keep Don get government guy. And that's it. Well, I just cross your legs. It's hard to cross your legs and they're not for you. Arms around each other. It's good right now. Logan, you're gonna go behind Ben, Put your arms around his neck. Big head out as well. Him a little strangle. That's it. What's it? Although don't hurt him. That might be tickled his head now getting a little tickle on his head. Okay, Now, come on the other side. But, Logan, you come out here. That's it. Let's get really close to you. You don't ever fight. Oh, do a home. You have a fire who normally wins normally wins at wrestling our position them with the tree behind their heads rather than white sky notice. By the way, that I keep chatting to them as much as possible throughout even though half the time I'm talking rubbish, but it keeps them engaged. Okay, so in this next year, things gonna pull Logan around by feet, put him down a little slope, okay? Thing is not a shot I would normally do. They were just playing around while I was getting myself organized. So with Children, it's always worth keeping an eye open for any city games they might be playing just to capture those memories. Please. One I always loved doing. Is the boys running on? We've got this great part here in between the trees. So they're gonna run towards me. I'm gonna put a camera in burst mode, continuous, focusing on. We should get some great shots. So you ready to run? Okay, we go. So you're gonna go right back to go back about four trees away, okay? Just just will just go back there, okay? And then you're gonna run run towards May. Just checking my exposure. Okay, good. Okay about that. That's fine. Okay, get ready. Steady. Go one. Benmont, Mr. Again, this time, hold hands. Okay. It's good if they can hold hands because it keeps, um, keeps them together. Okay. Ready? Hang on somebody behind you. Then you go, Oh, Don, that's great. You never really know with this time of shot where the Children will be looking, Sometimes they look down the hallway just looking up briefly. And that's why the burst mode is so important to get those great expressions. Obviously, I use continuous focusing here on also used a group of focal areas rather than just the one in case they were too quick for me. Okay, you've seen some of my previous films. You know, I really like this kind of area because we've gotten pavilion with the roof overhanging roof because there's a bit of top shades. Shutters look great as a background. So let's see what we can do here. Ready? So if you go back a bit, guys, you don't really with the top shade. You want people just baby four feet underneath it. So that's good looking good there. Why I want you to do He's just gonna jump up in the air. Well, I will. Your hands going up as well in the same time. Ready? 123 Go! Jump the highest. Not just get close together. Could we saw the hug That's good. That's very simple. You know, just jumping up in here. It means they're not gonna have kind of cheesy four smiles. We're going to be happy and relaxed. They look great for the next one. I think we just do a kind of peekaboo behind these pillars to see in their heads and see how they look. So you're going to hide behind the pillars. Okay, so I can't see you. So know this one? Both. Both of the same thing. What you gonna do when I say 123 On the count of three, you're gonna go with your heads, Okay? Together, become a little bit. Love Logan coming up, you know? Yes. You're gonna both of you together. But he wanted to practice. 123 That's it. Run 23 go. Okay. Admittedly know exactly a photographic masterpiece. But families do like this one. It's just a bit of fun. A peek a boo style shop. You can get whole families doing this as well, but be careful that their heads don't overlap. It was quite well from behind a wall or tree to a Z. You've seen. I really do like the running and walking shot. So we're going to do another one of those with this one with a difference. I've switched to another lens and I'm going to be shooting more wide angle. So this is a 12 mil focal length is gonna be 12 mil, which is equivalent to 24 mil on a full frame camera. I'm putting continuous, focusing on shooting in burst mode. But also, I normally use back button focusing, but that doesn't really work for this type of shot. So I've changed my settings. So the shutter is now going to focus. That makes it a lot easier to do this. So what's gonna happen is the boy's gonna chase May to see if they can actually keep up with me. I'm gonna be running backwards, so they should be It should be OK if you can catch me ready? I'm focusing. Ready? Go. I can almost hear you're thinking Oh, no, not more buying photos. But you know, when you shoot people close up with a wide angle lens, you get a completely different style of photo compared to standing back with the telephoto lens, which is what I did earlier between the trees these shots have more of an intimate kind of feel to them, with a certain warmth and familiarity. Plus, you get in mawr of the background. So not necessarily better than a telephoto lens shot where your further from the subjects just different. That's about it. I think we got some great photos there. And you can kind of see what I was trying to do with that in Logan and having having a bit of fun on trying to get natural, relaxed kind of expressions. So thanks, Ben. Thanks, Logan. You're both right. You both could be models in the future. Okay, See you next video. Bye for now.
7. Introduction to maternity / pregnancy photography: again. Interesting maternity photography has really exploded over the last few years. Now, when I was young, I don't think you could have paid women enough money to be photographed while they were a gazillion times the size they normally were. But times have changed, and these kind of photos have become more popular. Many parents enjoy having these types of photos in their album, on the wall or on their computers to look back on in years to come. Done right. They can evoke some wonderful emotions, especially in later years when the baby is growing up. So how do you do them right? Well, I would say there are three main factors you need to consider for maternity photos. I'll go through them briefly in this introduction on. I'll put them in action when I start shooting. First of all, as always, is the light. It's very important to consider how you want to light your subject in this case, Mum to Bay and her big belly on, especially if you're going for a movie, a type of look. It's important, not toe over light her. Otherwise, the chances are you could end up with just a snap in a record shop. Now I appreciate that's quite a sweeping generalization, but often not always. What you want is light and shadow to accentuate the belly and to make it look more three dimensional. Now second is opposing. You do have to be kind of strategic and aware of flattering and unflattering positions that accentuate certain body features. For example, bums could get a bit or even a lot larger in late pregnancy. Or sometimes women's faces get a kind of bit pudgy. Okay, not the most politically correct statement. But I'm just being honest moms to be don't want to look like they've been stuffed into some kind of fat suit. So we want to avoid angles that features areas that women might be sensitive about. Let's face it, we will want to look good in our photos, even if we're not pregnant. So we need to guide the subject in a super gentle way, to the point where her pose really brings out the beauty of her pregnancy. And when I'm shooting, I'll demonstrate a number of tips for doing just that. Yeah, clothing is also very important. Here's a few ideas about what the pregnant mum to bay could wear first. A skinny belt can cleverly accentuate a beautiful belly, even worn with a regular loose top, built it just above the belly. It can offer a very flattering look because it shows off the thinness part of the body. Defining the belly and making it stand out just isn't as intended. Keep it simple on request that she avoid floral patterns and stripes. Solid colors tend to look better. Timeless classical type clothes that don't date will prevent any embarrassment when the teenage kids are showing the photos in years to come. Think of those old 19 eighties photos we sometimes see of people with big hair or huge shoulder pads, very dated if she has the confidence considered. The natural look may be very brief panties and a slinky piece of fabric wrapped around her lower half, plus more of the same around her boobs or just with the hands covering them with the right lighting that can really provide a sensual, atmospheric kind of look if shooting full length are recommend that she goes barefoot, especially when using a more natural style. Also, there's always the sexier look. Wearing some gorgeous, larger a perhaps beautiful, larger I can really accentuate a woman's body on when done with the professional angle. Couldn't look fantastic. Needless to say, we want clothing that shows off the bump. Tight clothes or vest will accentuate the belly, so they're definitely worth considering. Let her flaunting her curves and cleavage on Allow a beautiful pregnant body to shine. By the way, one type of look that I see from time to time that I personally don't like is a T shirt just pulled up to under the boobs. I'm not very keen on that look. A long dress is a staple item of clothing for some pregnant women, and it can also be a good choice for maternity photos. Not only are they very comfortable, so I've been told, but they could be sculpted around the body for a flattering look. So if your subject isn't keen on figure hugging clothing, a long dress with flowing fabric can be a good choice again. Keeping it simple. A pen, maybe a pair of jeans, perhaps with the top button undone or briefs on a nice white shirt, possibly one belonging to a partner. For a simple, classic look, mind you tell her to go easy on the jewelry to where you know, maybe a wedding or engagement ring, and simple hearings are fine. But I'll ask her to avoid wearing your watch or oversized necklaces. Finally, with regard to clothing, a nice satins, silk robe or kimono that can cover parts of her body she wants hidden. Exposing just a belly is a great option, just like a lovely piece of flowing fabric draped around. It could really set the scene on make for stunning photos. So when's a good time for taking maternity photos? Well, I would say about the seventh or eighth month is about why you want the belly to be big and beautiful, but you don't want it to be so large that posing and holding different positions for any length of time becomes too tiring. But of course, you can easily practice these types of photos throughout the pregnant spaces pregnancy, especially if it's your wife or partner that's pregnant. Well, I think that's enough of the theory. Let's get on with the shooting now
8. Maternity Photography - Scenario 1 - Standing with light coming from behind: Well, we're here with the lovely Katie again. You may remember her for my posing course if you've watched that, and now she's having a baby and it's due in a couple of months time. So I think you she's about seven months, seven months pregnant. Andi, I want to keep the waffling down to a minimum in this video. I just want to concentrate on shooting in my in my home that will be moving from very into various locations, different styles of clothing. I want to try and use natural light as much as possible. Or there may yet send a might try to use fill in flash, depending on how our exposures turnout on. Finally, in the last session, we're going to go into my makeshift studio to do some off camera flash shootings, which will change the look and make make it a little bit more moody for those type of shots . But to start off with, we're gonna try shop in my kitchen. Okay, we're going to kick off of the basic standing post, and for this one, we're going to use the back of my house with open the French doors and shooting against the light, and that's because I don't want to overlying the belly. I want it to be nice and shadow and light on the stomach, and so we're shooting against the light, so there's going to be very little like reaching a foot from the front on to do that. I've opened the doors there. We could have kept the door shut, but I don't want the door flames poking out the back of her head. So it is nicer just to open, open the doors and get a nice, clean background, because that's always what you're looking for is a fairly clean, Uncluttered background. So to start off with Katie, a good starting point is to turn to walk. Turned 3/4 3 quarters to the camera, perfect on, then maybe raise your your front leg, which I think you're probably already doing. That helps to create a more modest pose, depending on what what she's wearing, but it also has a flattering curved a thigh. Now she has trouble bending than that you're raising the leg, maybe place a small box under the foot to make the pose a little bit more comfortable. We've done that, but I think Kate is quite comfortable where she is. Next wrap your fun arm underneath your belly. Now people don't have a fun armed and I but I really meant the arm news. A camera, but to keep things concise are safe. One with London back arms. Now next, wrap your you've done. You've got your arm underneath the stomach. Now the other hand on the top, lovely on the curve of the arm, helped to flatter the curve of the body. That looks great. So let's try taking a shop buddy. That's a nice poet. Also, it's great that she's looking down. I think that adds a little bit more emotion to the shot. Let's take a sharp. Okay, that's a little bit too dark, isn't it? Aperture. Priority gave me. Let's have a look. It gave me a shutter speed of 2500. I noticed that when Katie was a 3/4 to the camera, there wasn't so much like it in a it in our bellies. I've also just to turn to the side a little bit more. That's better. So okay, the camera is on aperture party F 1.7. What a 25 mil lens on here, which is a 35 mil equivalent of 50 mil. I s 0 200 on day. See what shutter speed. It gives us how this looks. Now it's given us a shutter speed of 1300. You could say it's a little bit dark, so I'm going to rather than just use exposure compensation, I'm gonna go into manual mode F 1.7 again and just change the shutter speed to, say 100. Guess I could have gone into exposure conversation and gone plus one. But depending on how I frame it, it could change the shutter speed yet again. So I know where I am with manual mode. You can just see that lovely bit of light hitting hitting this side. Or don't know that I've gone to 800. The garden has gone a little bit bright. So what I'm gonna do now is go back to 13 hundreds of a second and put the flash on just to give me a little bit of a little bit of light and, you know, on the front there, Andi, I'm on T T l on the flash on this. Stole down to minus one. Let's see how this looks. Okay, so here's the final shot in this sequence. Now, while I'm editing, I just want to talk through a few things. No, the lovely light at the edge of her belly. Boobs, arm and face. That's what I was really trying for. I've cropped the image to portray orientation in post processing to remove some of the distracting background. Also made the background a tad darker and remove the flower port that was on the patio. No other changes made other than my usual level on curves. Contrast Adjustment has to be said that shooting into the light doesn't make the exposure a little more difficult. Hence the trial and error process, but also some post processing is usually necessary. The flashes were well, hasn't it just lifting the shadows a bit. I don't often use the plastic diffusers indoors, but I think it was justified in this case to bounce the light around a little right away. My shutter speed was well in excess of the cameras. Maximum sync speed. So the flash was on high speed sink okay on to the next video
9. Maternity Photography - Scenario 2 - Katie wearing lingerie, lying on a sofa: okay for this short Kate is lying on my sofa. Obviously, I've covered it up with black velvet material, which is great because it kind of soaks up the light. Not opposing this. This is a kind of Mawr essential typos. It can really flatter the woman's curves in practice. Off the news in boudoir sessions, not I do many it. I was my wife own. Let me anyway. So the first thing to do is have the woman line aside, as she's doing now with the arm closest to the so far above us above a hair to decision rest. Erhan just ahead on it. Supporting ahead. So she didn't crosses her other arm. Ah, over, I think over the kind of breast for more, more modest kind of look and then bring your knee. Top me up. Just Teoh accentuate the curve of the thigh. The whole body language, really including the hands, should be kind of soft looking, gentle and feminine and curving on. What I mean is it shouldn't look as though she's struggling to balance, you know, ought opposed deliberately. So let's see. How did we get on? I've got to come a set, Teoh F 1.7 aperture Poverty I. S I was 400. So here's the first image straight out of the camera. Her leg is a little bit like, isn't it? The camera meter was falled a little bio that black in the flame, but it's not too bad and easily fixable. Here's the final version. After editing, you can see I extended the fabric above and below and converted it to black and white, which I think suits his image. Also notice our tilt to the image a bit to raise her up. You don't see it on the video, but I zoomed in for a bit more for close up. It's always worth changing things up a bit, or maybe using a different angle to make the most of any particular scenario. So that's all for the sofa. For the next video, we'll move upstairs to my spare bedroom, so stay tuned
10. Maternity Photography Scenario 3 - Katie wearing man's large white shirt, on bed: Okay, so we've come up into my spare bedroom on this has got white walls and a nice window there with some lovely light coming in on. Kate is sitting on the bed with a very relaxed kind of pose, sitting with legs to one side. So obviously I'm going to take it from the side to accentuate the curve of her belly again . She's got the hands on the belly, one underneath, one at one above, and you have to be careful when he sitting pose will squash out the bum. So you need to be careful with the angle or cover up the area, which is what the show is doing. Andi, you can see that this is being lit from the side, so we got that lovely light on her belly. So let's try taking a short I mean Apertura polity F 1.7 I so 400. Now, other special settings notice he's looking out a window as well, to put that nice light on her face straight away. That was great. I'm gonna dial down the exposure just a tiny bit because there's quite a lot of light hitting the belly. So let's told up, down to say, minus 2/3. Try again, John Frame Exactly the same. Yeah, that's a little bit better. Isn't it? Good? That looks really beautiful. We love that. I love the look of the shirt on Dwight. Oppose hangs together. Great. Just a quick word about exposure while I'm editing now. Although the first photo was exposed about right, there was just too much light on her belly, which for May sported a little. When I used exposure compensation for the second shot notice. I try to frame it exactly the same as the first. That's because had I included same or the White Wall or, even worse, a part of the window. The exposure would have changed, regardless for the exposure compensation. Where should she be looking with these type proposes. Well, I find it adds a bit of kind of emotion to the shop. If she's looking down at the bellies and let's try one like that, just notice the beautiful shadow and light on Katie's belly and also that small hint of light on the edge of her face. It's that kind of light that makes this type of image so much more than a simple snapshot. Now, if you were to look at the camera, we would lose the light on the face because it's all coming from the side, so that wouldn't work. So you have to be careful of doing those type of shots where the where the woman is looking at the camera and there's no enough good light on her face. It can move in the shop. I prefer where they're looking down at the belly or looking towards the light. So you're taking another shot this time from the front. Kate is looking down and to decide. So the lights in the face really nice. I haven't got much room, so I switched to a 15 mil, and it is kind of the yoga kind of position. I wonder if it would help if you are on a pillow behind you. So you were leaning more forward because your knees are closer to the camera, so they're becoming more dominant. And I'm looking down again. Yeah, I quite like this cross legged typos taken from the front, but it doesn't really show off the belly as much as when taken from the side does it still , and I shot anyway. That's enough In the bedroom are moved to the studio now to use some off camera flash. Thanks for watching.
11. Maternity Photography - Scenario 4 - Katie draped in a soft fabric: okay for this final session, we've come into my little studio makeshift studio. We're going to be using off camera Flash, which I'll go into in a little more detail in a moment. But as far as the clothing imposing concern, Katie's got this fat, nice fabric that down the lower half ago, but at the moment, but should be removing that. Just covering up of this with with arms and hands and you're gonna be Tony to the side is going to be quite a moody type of shot. That's the kind of light and I'm going for. And so, just to describe the off camera flash technique, we've got a light inside this soft box here. On that set to 16th power the ice I was F four shutter speed, 160th of a second. So the aperture is, therefore should say, shutter Speed 160th. I saw 200 on uh, that's the main light, Really. I've got another little strip light behind. I'm not sure how effective that will be, but that's just going to because we're shooting against against a black background that's just going to give a little bit of light to her back. What else are gonna shoot this In portrait orientation? I normally tend to shoot landscape because it could be cropped to portray it later on anyway. But in this case, the background doesn't really go far enough out, so I'll be shooting landscape orientation. I think that's about it. Let's give this a try. Well, what? You are a couple of poses. Okay, So Katie's turned to decide, Like, just like before, raising one leg. That's quite important. That leg. If you just stand flat footed on both feet, then it doesn't create that nice kind of curve shape. She's got her hands covering up boobs. Uh, on, uh, we've got one light just kind of set behind. There's no, it's not being little from the front just to create that kind of moody kind of look. So let's see how this looks. Turn your face a little bit more towards May. Look at that. Beautiful. Yeah, that looks very nice. And please, when I was a nice movies shot that will look great in black and white as well, I think generally I prefer one hand underneath the belly and one over the boob, as I feel that focuses the viewers attention onto the Betty. But the black and white image was a variation along with the one on the right here. Okay, to finish off will just try one more pose. And this is a nice curvy poses. A little bit kind of model, if you like thin the 1st 1 Is that a word? But anyway, you know what I mean. But every woman stand in profile, I'm really showing off a beautiful shape and she's got one leg in front of the other. They raised up, if necessary, onto a box, and she's gonna raise alarm above the bed. Now you have to be careful. The the arm doesn't intersect with the face, so just lower the rodeo. But that's it. Otherwise, it kind of intersects with with a face and and sport and spores it right Now, what else can we think about? She's got one arm covering upper boobs for a more modest post pose Onda. We need to ensure the entire hand is kind of visible as well to create amore kind of elegance that we don't really want to see any clenched fists or clenched hands right now looks good. Let's try that. I've got that wrong. I made a mistake here because the light is on the other side. So Katie needs to turn around. What? I'm not that way. Yeah. Others. Lovely. I'm more a bit closer. Just drop your elbow. You shoulder a little bit. That's it. Doesn't seem that sits on your chin looking mawr not looking more in that direction just to the light. Catches here a little bit better. What now? The other thing I don't like. We're seeing a little bit too much of Katie's left dressed there. If you lower your elbow. You know, when you left, you left them one. That's it. There. That's better. Yeah. Then let's do it again to keep it lowered. That left elbow just love it. No, you are there over that. You just love it a little bit. That's it. Yeah. And are looking toward the wall. Yeah. These look okay, don't know, but there are a bit model like so I think I prefer the earlier poses. Also notice that Katie has arched her back a little, causing a little crease in her back. Easy enough to photo shop our if necessary. But you know sometimes just leaving things alone feels more natural. So that's the end of this video. I hope you enjoyed it on. Thank you very much, Katie. For more than is good luck with the baby. If it all goes well on DSI you in the next video.
12. On-Board flash creativity using 'The Black Foamy Thing' flash attachment: again in this video, I want to demonstrate a better way of using onboard flash when taking portrait indoors, using what has become known as a black foamy thing. Now, because the flash head is a small light source, if you make the mistake of just pointing it directly at your subject, generally speaking, you're going to end up with an amateur looking snapshot with hard shadows and possibly shiny bits on your subjects. Forward cheeks or nose, plus maybe a strong hard shadow on the background behind your subject, it really looks good. No, A much better way to use a flash is to bounce it off walls and ceilings. But when you do that, the light from the flash center spread and spill around everywhere. On. Although you may well get quite a pleasing portrayed, the light will be quite flat, and it won't be a very creative or dramatic type of portrait. Not that might well be the type of image you were after, but you can go one step further to get a little more creativity. Even though we're balancing, say, off a wall, the light is directional. The idea here is to make the light look even more directional by preventing some of the light that's bouncing around from spilling out on from hitting your subject directly. Now I've already made one video about this topic in a previous course, which showed how to use a piece of black foam to prevent unwanted light from hitting your subject. But now I'm going to take it one step further still to show you a better way of doing it. Attaching this black foamy thing, too your flash and using it correctly, you'll create lovely soft directional light for a beautiful, professional looking image this technique and give you strikingly dramatic light from just a non camera speed light. Plus, you can also achieve a short lighting pattern pattern, which I discussed in the video and light patterns earlier. In this course, the foam itself could be bought very cheaply from craft shops and from eBay in the UK It's called funky foam. Elsewhere. It's just called craft farm and comes in a four or a three shoots. You can bend it and shape it around the flash head, and it will stay in position. Although it's not a specific size start off by cutting out a piece approximately eight by six inches. Maybe a bit smaller if you're using a more compact flash gone like the one I'm using here, basically just enough to go around the flash head and to prevent direct light from spilling out everywhere. As I said, it could also be shaped and moved around, depending on whether you're shooting in landscape or portrait orientation. Attach it to the underside of the flash, using a hair band or elastic band. Funnily enough, I don't use a hair band. Well, not anymore. So I just use an elastic band once attached. Don't have the black foamy thing stick out too far, maybe just one or two inches from the flash head. I normally folded at the bottom, which allows me to extend or reduce the size of the piece that produce that protrudes from the flash head. Okay, I'm back with Carlo again. He's going to model for us before we start. I think I'll remove the black foamy thing and just take one or two shots using direct flash just so that we can compare them afterwards. So let's get rid of that. For the time being. The camera is in manual mode on my settings are F 412 160th of a 2nd 125th of a second higher. So 200 they're pretty good settings, generally for onboard flash. So let's give this enjoy, and we'll compare the photos afterwards. Now this is there's direct flush, actually for divert flash. That doesn't look, It'll bad. Anyway, I've now switched to portray orientation. Yeah, when shooting direct fresh vertically, you can end up with a horrible background shadow like you see here. It's made far worse by the fact that it's in front of her face. Switch the camera to the other side so that at least the shadow is behind your subject. Okay, so this time I'm going to take another picture. I'm going to bounce a flash off the wall and bear in mind that some of the light is going. Teoh is going to come off the flash head on here, Carla directly so it's going to flatten out the light slightly still, most of it coming off the wall. But she'll be able to see that flash head, which means some of the light will hit a directly Let's see how this looks. So let's face it this way again. So now with no black foamy thing. Yeah, that is quite nice. There's a small amount of light modeling with a slight shadow this side of Carter's face. So it's a pleasing, flattering light. No very dramatic, but obviously drama is not always required, and all we want is a more flattering portrait. So now I'm going to use the black family thing on bounce the light off the wall and ceiling to you. Try and get that nice short light in. And if you remember, that's where the side of the face nearest the camera is in shadow. I'm going to point it at the wall and ceiling so that the light comes down in exactly the right place. Hopefully to give us that light in pattern, it may take several shots. I might have to use a bit of trial and error moving a flash head around and remember, the the walls and seniors are large light sources, so they're going to give us a soft, a soft light, and none of the lights should be hitting Carla directly from the flash head on because of where I'm pointing it we should get that nice directional light. So let's give it a try. Yeah, I like that. You can see the lovely soft light and shade on her face, something that you really see with onboard flash. Especially when using the various aftermarket Tupperware diffuses. So I'm going to shoot with the black foamy thing on on in portrait mode and I'm going to bounce to the light off this wall. So, Carlos, now facing that wall to keep that short lighting going. Another great photo. The black, foamy thing seems to work particularly well in portrait orientation. Beautiful soft loop lighting pattern here and now you can see how the image is using the black foamy thing. Have a more defined lighting pattern, obviously much better than direct flash, but even better than just a plain bounce off the wall. But it must be said that if you're in a house or hall with very high or dark walls and ceilings, this technique may not work very well. Your flesh made not be powerful enough. You could always raise the ire. So open up the aperture to, in effect, get more power from the flesh. But then you'd have to be careful, not over exposed the ambient light. In the past, I've been asked, why not use a white card or foam off or white foam? Is that a black? And that's because the black, foamy thing access a flag? No, As a balance card, a white card might throw too much light into the room, flattening the light. I don't want that. I want directional life. I want to see that light modeling on the face, the light and shade and contrast. Oh, and by the way, another benefit is that because it's fastened underneath underneath the flash shared it blocks light from hitting people that are standing behind or next to me with a blinding light. And so it means you can be a little bit more unobtrusive with flash. Really, it's all about getting the best quality of light you can from your on camera speed. Like on all owners. Lots of flash modifies on the market, most of which promises I will instantly solve your onboard flash problems. This one is lying on its cheap and won't need to be upgraded to a new version next year. In a way, it's all about separating the need for new gear on getting yourself a good understanding of the light on the technique of lighting. So I hope you enjoy this video. See you in the next one. Bye for now.
13. Beautiful light, courtesy of a white shopping bag and single off-camera flash: hi again. Well, I'm here with our lovely model Carlo again to show you a nice little tip suitable for those of you who haven't yet splashed out on lots of lighting gear. You know, like multiple flashes off boxes, stands and so on. Or maybe you do have plenty of lighting gear, but a bit apprehensive about using it. If that's the case, this quick video, it's for you people. I'm going to show you a very simple and effective trick for quickly taking a beautiful off camera flash portrayed using just the barest minimum of equipment on with very little effort. All you need for all you need for this is one flash and triggering system, plus a white shopping bag, Onda model or willing subject. Just sit your model a table in place, a white shopping bag a couple of feet away on the table, about 45 degrees. Actually, I look demand for a stiff shopping bag that could put a flash in but struggled to find one on None of my wife's 30 yard shopping bags were suitable. I mean, what is it with women and shopping bags? I just don't get it anyway, so This is just a plain cotton bag on by place, um, cardboard in it to keep it a plight. Obviously, without the cardboard, it would just flop down. Now these are going to be quite low light images I want to under exposed over by a couple of stops. My shutter speed is 160th. That's the maximum sync speed on this camera. Aperture is F 2.8 on the I S O is 200. That's my starting point, but I may have to tweet those settings. First of all, I'll take a shot without the flash. I'm using a 40 mil prime lens, which is equivalent of 80 mil on a full frame camera. Perfect focal length for poor traits. So let's see how it looks with no flash, I've turn the flash off. Now this nooks Yeah, that looks fine. The room has gone dark, which is what I wanted, but it's not completely black. I'll start off with the flash of 16 power. My original intention was to actually put the flash inside the bag, but the material is quite fit for thin, so I put it behind the shopping bag. Now the shopping bag is very close to Carla, just just out of the flame. I'm not using a flash meter, so I'll take a quick short to check the exposure on. If Karl is too dark, I'll increase the flash power. If she's to Black, I'll reduce it. No need to change any camera settings. Okay, that's starting to look pretty good, but it's a little bit dry it. So I'm just gonna adult down the flash power to a 32nd power. Let's see how that looks. Okay, that's perfect. So let's start shooting or take various shorts. Didn't different poses on for some short. She is going to be looking down in the direction of the shopping bag, and that will create short lighting on her face. The dark background will add to the low light mood. You look so let's get shooting. - Yeah , these look great. I'm pleased with them. Bear in mind, though that normally rely, it comes from above, and in this case we've got a shopping bag just slightly lower than I line. So that's why in one or two shots at Carla, looking down at the table a tablecloth. But you know I love These shots are very moody, and we're just a small flash in a shopping bag. It's not even a special photographic shopping bag. It's just an ordinary one. So thanks very much, Carla on D. C. You in the next feel bye for now.
14. How to get a black or very dark background outside, anywhere: again in this film, I want to demonstrate how you can get a dramatic Loki portrait outside with a completely black or the very least, a very dark background Andi without using any props or backdrop. You can try this out very easily. All you need is a single battery powered flash gun on umbrella on, of course, are willing subject. Lawrence here has volunteered and were in his garden. He may have seen it before in a video on another course about using flash anyway about the equipment. I'm using a Panasonic GX 84 3rd camera with a 40 millimeter lens. That's the equivalent of 80 mil in old film terms. So it's great for Portrait. You can see how small and portable cameras, and that's quite handy now that I'm getting quite old and feeble, my God ops X t. One trick on the health you will trigger the God Ox TT 600 flash. I'm using a reflective umbrella on, so it'll be a little less light spilled on a translucent one. So that's a gear. As far as the settings are concerned, I'll be using manual mode on both the camera on the flash. It's much simpler plus Olga Consistent results. Also, whenever you're outside using off camera flash unless it's already dark outside, a good starting point is the lowest I so on the highest maximum sync speed on this is because you need to reduce the camera sensitivity as much as possible in order to under expose the background. But away on this particular camera, the maxing speed is 16 1/60 of a second. But I'm going to try giving it to 50th of a second because on because I'll exceed the maxing speed, the bottom of the image will go a little darker. But as we're shooting Loki anyway, it won't matter. So that's the ISO and shutter speed sorted on their fixed. I don't want to change those well know unless we're here for hours and it starts getting dark outside. The only changes are possibly need to make will be the aperture on door, the flash power or the flash to subject distance. What about the aperture? Well, obviously, if using ah wide aperture, I'm going to be letting in too much ambient light. So I'm going to guess that fate for less. First of all, let's see how this looks without flash. I'm hoping for a completely black background. Let's give it a try so the flash is turned off. Yeah, it's very dark, but you can still see Lawrence. It's not completely black, so I'm going to close down the aperture to F 11 and try again. Okay, Going to F 11. Yeah, that's better. It's still not completely black who's starting to run out of options? He could close down the aperture to say F 16 but that would mean that probably wouldn't quite be enough light from the flash. A lot depends on the ambient light. It's getting towards dusk now, and if you try this on a bright sunny day, you're really asking for trouble. The background will go dark but not completely black, so it's best to try on either a cloudy day or just wait till later in the day. Like now, maybe at dusk. Or maybe for your short. It's not important that the background goes completely black, just very dark, so it's up to you to decide what to do. Sony Right now that we have a black background, I'll turn the flash on the smaller the aperture. The harder the flash as to work but the flashes on full power of the moment. And that's but it's still possible that F 11 the flesh won't be quite powerful enough. Okay, some a F 11 to 50th of a second flashes on four power. And here I so, by the way, is at 100. I forgot to mention that. Okay, loans looking good there, but that's not about exposure. But I think Lawrence is slightly under exposed, so I'm going to move the flash in just a little bit further toward him. Try it out again. It looks perfect on the back of the screen. But what if it was under exposed? Well, I could move the flashing even closer. But if the flash was already as close as possible, I would have to come up with another option. The easiest way would be to wait until dusk. Like I said before, just wait until it's a little darker. That way I could shoot. It's a F E eight, maybe, or even 5.6 on the flash power would then be enough to like the subject. But let's don't have timeto hang around or come back. Another time. Well, I could use a second flash that would give me another stop of power. Or I could use a more powerful flash gun to give me more like something with a battery pack . Some people might suggest high speed sink on your own neutral density filter, but those wouldn't really help as you lose flash power. Basically, you just need more like anyway, my exposure is OK now on we've got a nice black background on were outside instead of being tucked away in a studio. We've got fresh air. The birds are singing in. The wind is blowing through my hair Well, what's left of it. So let's take some pictures or move around as well, or move the light around to vary the images on the lighting patterns because the flashes on full power on it will take a few seconds to be charged, so I won't be able to take the photos in quick succession. So let's get going. Got it. He's not looking me. Don't I want to bring the fresh Come on, this one tiny but not in front of you come off the back of the chair, so you just That's it there. That's better. Try one. Maybe I would decide. That's good. Now, looking maybe over this way, looking over there. Okay. Try not to look at you in pain. Yeah, that's a few close ups. I think I put a slightly larger umbrella on and take him standing up once. Yeah. What? What is really close? I think I'll switch to a 25 mil lens, which is the equivalent of a 50 mil standards. Hyper lens. What wants to do is turn your whole body this way. Okay? Stand. Put your weight on one leg and then turn your head this way. It always looks good for standing up shop, pointing away on one leg and having the face what had turned the turn so that it's not in the same direction as the torso. Okay, just a little forward. Very slightly. I say. Keep looking over that way. Keeping your head face pointed that way. Turn your whole head. That's it. There. So that's it. Thanks, Lawrence. We got some nice shots. They're quite simple. Really Know that Lawrence is the distance from the background. If you try this by placing the subject new a wall, you could like the wall, so get your subject away from the background. Also, it won't work inside for that very reason, because the light will bounce around onto the background, give it a try and see how you get on. There is one thing that I should have mentioned that is getting late in the day now, and I started off F eight on. Then I went to every 11. But if it was a little bit brighter, maybe midday, I probably would have had to start at 11 on, then going on to F 16 and then I might have had to move the flash in really, really close. Otherwise it just wouldn't have been enough power on the flush. So anyway, as I said to give it a try, see how you get on on to you in the next film. Bye for now.
15. An idea for a moody, 'film-noir' gangster type photo: Hello again and welcome to my garage cum studio on. In fact, today, it's not even going to be a studio. Is going to be a mobster's hideout, possibly under siege. I'm going to create a film wire type style portrayed That's going to be movie dramatic on a low light Heavy on the contrast on black and white Onda We got a few props here. The model was gonna be standing over here looking through a Venetian blind. This is the room this is inside of them on the other side is outside the room. Andi, we've got a Venetian blind. He's gonna be looking down at the street is in a high level apartment block. So it's going to be looking down at the street. This is going to be our window. You've seen this before in a previous video. This is our three millimeter aspects. What else have we got? Well, because we're high up. I'm going to have a light shining from below. And so I've got a speed like on a stand over there on I'm just gonna be shining that there's no more defy on it at the moment. That's chances are going to be hitting five through the through Divination blind. Normally, when you take a portrait, you the light is typically coming from above. But because we're simulating an apartment block was high up that the light is coming from below. What? So, uh, that's being David and see how we go on. Okay, so we have Dave here modeling for us. Dave is actually normally my camera man, that is offered to be a mobster and mobster for today. He's got the hat, He's got the waistcoat. Got the tire looking good. So the moment we've just got one light on That's a normal speed lie, and it's on at the moment, I think 64th power the shutter speed. It said 260th of a second, which on this camera is a maxing speed on the aperture is F 4.5. So let's try taking a shot. So you have it looks thanks quite told. So I'm going to stand on something. Yeah, that looks pretty good. It's a good start, but I think we've got a little bit too much light everywhere. So what we're going to do is put a honeycomb grid on the speed light on. This is just a standard kind of speed like accessory. And it takes these grids as honeycomb grids as, uh, successors. Just slot them in there and that stops the light from going all over the place. Little light will just go in one direction. So let's put it on here and see how it looks now, okay? Stood out again. So that's a lot A lot better, but it is under exposed now because we've lost a bit of power. So I'm going to increase the power on the flash to 32nd power joy again. Yeah, I'm pleased with that. That looks pretty good. It's a good starting point, but I want to add a little bit more impact to the room, the David standing and a little bit more light in the background. So I've got a light in the corner there, which is going to act as a kind of separation, like so it's gonna hit the back of him on November V movies hat just to separate him from the background and also had another light at the top just to create a light on a little light on the background. Just a small beam of light because really, if there's some light hit in his hat and hit in his shoulder, the light has to come from somewhere. So that's a light is into them, and it's hitting is back and back and shoulder. So I switched those on and let's see how I look. Yeah, this beam of light is created by using a homemade snoop, which fits over to Flash Head. You could make them from cardboard. Or, as I've done from funky phone, and you can find that stuff on eBay. The spread of light look pretty good to May. This is another flash come behind Dave set fairly low power and with the head zoom right into 105 millimeters. But there's a problem. Yeah, I'm pretty happy with I was. The only problem was that the light in the corner of which I was using two separate day from the background was putting out too much light on. It was spilling out everywhere on, So I've used my d I wire homemade strip light, which is really just a postal tube. Andi has some aluminium tin foil or aluminum tin foil inside, and I'll show you that later on. So, yeah, now that we've got all the light and set up, we're all ready to go. Let's start shooting. - Yeah , I'm quite pleased with these images. I added more contrast of the black and white versions to complete the film. While Look, this one with the replica gun is my favorite. I must admit I'm not over keen on the reflection on the left. I now wish I had purchased a wider Venetian blind. Then I could have shot alongside it to provide leading lines into our mobster notice. In the previous versions, I cropped out the reflection and created a square image. But I'd rather not have done that. I mentioned earlier my D I Y strip box. Here it is. It's a post or two, with a long cutout covered with diffusion material. Inside, there's aluminium tin foil. The flash goes in one end five upwards, and the light emerges through the cut up. It puts out a nice, slim spread of light, and you can see the light pattern here. It has all sorts of uses, but I use it mainly as an accent, like when photographing customer headshots, you can see the effect here on the right side of the customer's face, that is, camera left on here on the left side of the customer's face is quite a subtle effect just to refine the light in. Here's the link to the website where I discovered how to make it. It's quite simple to do, and it won't break the bank. Okay, great. Some please. We knows we've got some nice shots in. Hey, Dave. Oh, you can stop playing with a gun now. You know, really a mobster. But it would love to be, I guess. Anyway, have you enjoyed that? See you in the next field. Bye for now.
16. How to take an indoor, rainy day, creative portrait: hi again. Well, it's winter here in the UK on is rather cold and wet and miserable outside on what I'd like to try and do in this film is to take some lovely portrait's recreating the look and feel of a wet, rainy, overcast day outside. And to do that, I'm going to just use my little guy large. Actually, no, not go on studio on. We're gonna keep nice and warm and just use the space here. Actually, it is my guy Large. Obviously, Andi is only a small space on, so I just want to show that you don't need a huge amount of space to take portrayed slight days. Well, okay, let's take a look at the equipment I'm going to use. First of all, I'm going to use be using off camera flash. But the main piece of kit that I got here is this is this Perspex and that's going to help the scree creative rainy, rainy day. I'm just going to be squirting toe wart on that. Later on, the model is going to be sitting behind a window on for our window. I'm using his three millimeter kind of acrylic sheet which you can buy from D I Y stores. Andi. I put a link to a lot of this equipment in the resources file he should find along with this video or possibly on the same page. Is this video Depending on where it's being viewed, I'm going to be using off camera flash. My main line is going to be this God ox umbrella soft box on rather than using a normal umbrella, translucent umbrella, which tends to spread the light abound. This one is a little bit more directional, so I prefer to use this particular light. In this case, I don't really want the light guy going everywhere, trying to control it as much as possible. Normally, I would use just a standard kind of speed light. But because I'm going to be shooting F 11 on, I'll talk about the settings in a moment. I really need a little bit more power, and so I'm using these God ocs 83 sixties. They're kind of speed lights on, steroids on. They give a little bit more power, probably a couple of stops of more power. So I've got one inside the soft box here on day, I'll probably use another one at the back. We want to create the look of a room. Obviously, it's inside a house looking out the window, so I'm using a black background as well, and that will make everything look a little bit darker. Andi, I'm looking. I'm really looking for a dramatic, moody type of look to this photo to these photos. What else can I tell you? One of the hardest aspect of this actually was hanging up the perspex, she or getting the perspex sheet into position. So that's something. If you try me produces, it's something you have to mess around with two drying. Try and get it to the right height and to keep it safe and stable. So just a few quick words about the settings I'll be using. First of all, the shutter speed I'll be shooting at my maximum sync speed, which I think is 250th on the camera I'll be using, and that's to reduce any ambient light. I'm wanted ambient, like getting in on the scene, for example. There's a light on the ceiling there, which, Ah, you can give a kind of a collar cost and I want to make sure that snow in the in the image I s o probably about 400 just to give a little bit more power to the flashes are abusing, you know, to help, helps not to have to shoot on four power. So what about the all important aperture? Well, I'm gonna be shooting f 11 because I want a wide depth of filled to make sure that the rain on the Perspex is in focus as well as the lovely face of my of my model. So we've got I So 400 shadows be to 50th of a second aperture F 11. I haven't actually meted the light yet, but I'm guessing the flash power will be something like 1/16. Maybe in 88 power. These are quite powerful. These little flashes, a typical speed, like I may be on half power, possibly even full power. So that was one of the reasons I wanted to use the more powerful 83 sixties. Plus, I've had them for ages, and I haven't used him as much as I expected to. That was a good chance to get them out on, dust them off on get to use them. What? I think that's about it. Let's get a model in. Okay, so we have our model and more Dill. This is Kate and choose my sister in law. And in actual fact, K is a drama teacher. So she's going to give us an Oscar winning performance with the expressions, and I hear that she's even started writing at her acceptance speech anyway. So, um, before we start, I think, first of all, I'm going to take a shot without any any lights at all, just to make sure that there's no ambient light getting into the sea. And in fact, I made a mistake before. These maximum sync speed on this particular camera is 160th of a second. So I first take a first of all, take a sharp just to make sure there's no other light getting into the scene you had that looks perfect, completely black. So that's a good starting point. Okay, so we'll try our first shot just using this one main light. I've connected up the battery now. It wasn't connected before, and I just checked the exposure on the power set in. We want about 88th power Let's give this in. This gives a dry so there's no water yet on the on the sheet. Just a short short with a black background. Yeah, on exposure. Looks pretty good there. Now, the problem is the background is very dark, isn't it? So just to separate the hair from the background, give it a little bit of a boost. I'm gonna put the light on the back, switch this on over here. Not sure about the power yet. Well, there goes the Perspex. So let's put that on. Let's put it on the 16th Power and that looks to May about light. Okay, so that's how setting sorted out. I think I look pretty good. One other point about the light is original. I thought I'd have to have it very high in order to avoid any reflections from the Perspex . I want to bring it lower on Bond may be born it bring it around a bit, so there's a bit more like in Kate's eyes. Other than that, I think we're ready to go, So let's they starts. Spring has just asked me whether she should be looking at the camera, and it is quite important that she doesn't look at the comer because he's inside of room looking out into the world on DSO. No, she doesn't look at the camera. Also, she wants to be looking in this direction towards the light, so her face is kind of short lit. So we get in the light on that side of the face and shadow on the face, the side of the face near this, a camera. So let's carry on with some shots. - Oh , okay. I have not changed things around. I put the Perspex alongside Kate, So it's not going to look as if I'm shooting inside the room towards the outside world. And Kate is just going to move or lean towards the window. I think that would give us a completely different type of look and feel. So, yeah, I think we've got some really nice pictures there. They look great. So thanks very much, Kate. I think that really was an Oscar winning performance. Get the old speech ready. Anyway. We're not quite finished yet. Yeah, in those first few photos, Well was taking photos of Kate looking into the room from the outside the window didn't Not particularly well did it because there were no reflections of the outside world. That's what you'd normally say. So that's going to be very easy to put white and photo shop. I'll show you how it could be done. Yeah, I really like the assembly. Just think she's got a lovely expression and she really does look like she's looking out of a window. So what I'm going to do to correct the reflection is toe overlay another image from the outside world on top of this one, I'm really You can choose pretty much any picture you like of the outside. But I'd prefer one that doesn't have too many bright areas in it. So I've looked at this one. I think this one will work quite well. I'm going to select the whole thing. Copy it. Switch back to the original image. I know what I'm gonna do is just paste it over the top. That will create a new liar. And you see, if I turn that Lau off, you'll see the original image underneath it, but obviously are now need to lower the opacity. And I'm gonna love it to about about 20. I think that looks like a proper reflection then. But it's a little bit too sharp, isn't it? So I'm going to use Gaussian Blur just a blow it slightly but maybe 30 around that area. 29 30 Looks like a proper reflection there. Not quite done yet. We've still got something reflection covering her face. He had nose and mouth. It's got some reflection over. Plus, somebody owes a little bit too bright, so taken down the A pass, it'd to brush about 35. And here's 100%. I'm just going over her whole face just to be moved to reflection from the whole face and maybe on a jumper. A swell. I don't think that's about it. That looks pretty good. So here's the original image on Here's the one with the outside short over, laid on top of it. But it's still quite sharp, and finally, a touch of Gazi and Blur just to make it look like a real reflection. So that's about it. I think we got some good photos there, and that last shot looks really nice, so I would see you in the next film. Bye for now,
17. Course Conclusion: well, lovely Susan's That's about it. You've reached the end of the course. I like to think we've covered a lot of ground together with both natural lie on off camera , flash live sessions and so on, plus some basic portray information on lighting patterns and composition. But remember, on this goes for all great photography tutorials, it's now up to you to go out and practice what you've learned. There's only so much you can learn from books, DVDs and videos. You must practice some of these ideas. You'll make mistakes. Of course you will. But it's those mistakes that will put you on the right path for you to become a great portrait photographer anyway, all the best. And I hope you really enjoy the course, so I'll say finally, bye for now.