All language subtitles for 1. 5 Steps to a Well-Crafted Photograph

If I had to describe my style of

photography, I would probably throw out words like

glamorous and natural, meaningful and soulful.

Now, what does that mean in terms of

how we craft a photograph?

Because how do you make something look glamorous

and beautiful and natural at the same time?

So in other words, I guess when people

ask me to expand about more about my

style and what you'll be learning in this

course, and that is how to actually make

something look beautiful and finessed and sophisticated with

the natural nature of something candid.

In other words, how do we create posed

photojournalism?

And it's an oxymoron, right?

Because they're complete opposite.

One is organic and one is very, let's

call it, we're just documenting.

And then the other one, we're directing, we're

producing, we're creating.

So I like the idea of doing a

glamorous and natural style, because that's pretty much

what everyone wants.

There's not many brides that will come to

you and sort of say, I, yes, pose

me all day, thank you very much.

And by the way, no worries, you can

do what you want.

Everyone likes the idea of just beautiful, organic,

natural flowing photography and all that kind of

thing.

It just doesn't happen like that.

In reality, it's just not like that.

So how do we start?

How do we even begin to create something

that looks natural?

And it was funny because I was teaching

a course a very, very long time ago

and I was actually forced to say, look,

hey, describe your style.

Someone said to me, teach us what your

style is and then how do you get

to that destination?

So I thought to myself, all right, I

want something beautiful and I want something natural.

Therefore, there has to be a process.

There has to be some steps that I

get there.

And what I ended up doing in my

career, these steps, these five steps as I

call them, these five steps to a well

-crafted photograph, it happened organically.

Then when I had to teach my approach,

I had to break it down and to

this day, it's the exact same method.

So let me just go through it with

you.

What are the five steps to a well

-crafted and impactful photograph?

Well, to put it simply, let's go through

them quickly and then diagnose them a little

bit further.

Light is number one.

I look for the direction of light.

I'm actually looking for where the light's going

to be iridescent, where it's going to glow,

where there's saturation in the skin, where it

describes something and so on.

The location.

At the start of my career, what I

would do is I'd always put my couples

next to a tree, next to the wall,

always against the location or the background.

Now I care less about the background and

care more about the emotion and the feeling

of the photograph.

So I look for light first and location

second.

The most inexperienced photographers, or perhaps photographers who

haven't been taught properly, in my humble opinion,

would always go for location first.

There's a nice place, let me shoot there.

There's a nice wall, there's a nice whatever.

I want to flip that.

I want you guys watching at home to

actually understand that there is an approach and

there is a process that we can tackle

one thing at a time and craft a

photograph.

So my humble encouragement is look for the

direction of light first, and we'll discuss that

properly in future segments.

Look for the location second.

Now, you might say, well, Gerry, how does

that work?

Because ultimately you said you want to make

your couples look glamorous but also natural.

Well, how do we do that?

Well, as an example, let's say if the

sun was coming over here, and I wanted

the bride to turn her face into the

sun, I need to give her an excuse

to do that.

Well, maybe she's picking up a dress, going

for a walk, and looking back at her

man.

Then you've got the groom holding the dress,

and they're interacting.

So I would literally and logically say, hey,

bride, stand there.

Look over your shoulder back into the light.

Hey, groom, pick up the dress, look at

her.

Now I have the direction of light, the

location to be the church and a car

or something in the background.

Then now I need to do some other

things.

Of course, the light led me there.

The location also was there.

I posed them in that way.

The technique now, I need to work out

what my composition is, my cropping, my lens

choice, my exposure, all those things.

And then I've got to evoke the emotion.

So in my opinion, there are five steps

to a well-crafted photograph.

Now, this is not exactly the five steps

that you would actually take into a photojournalistic

environment, like an organic event where you cannot

pose a single thing.

This is not really what you would do.

Yes, there are elements in there, they're all

important, but you wouldn't pose them, for example.

The emotional, it's already, it's what's, whatever's there,

whatever's happening.

So I'm saying to you that this whole

course, in terms of the art and the

craft of photography, is really designed about on

the foundation and the shoulders of this process.

Light, number one, not location.

If a location attracts you, then you have

to either go find the good light or

create the good light in that location.

Light, number one, location, number two, pose them.

Give them something to do.

That is the key to actually making them

look and feel natural.

Putting them in a situation, give them an

excuse to be there.

What are they doing there?

Otherwise, if they're standing there, looking at the

camera, smiling, holding flowers, well, that doesn't look

natural at all.

It may be glamorous, as in it may

be pretty, but what about the organic feeling

or that beautiful fleeting moment that the bride

wants?

She wants to look beautiful, but she wants

to look effortless.

So posing, and we'll come to discussing posing

properly in future segments, but posing almost implies

a stuffy, robotic action.

And we have to get rid of those

problems and that fear associated with us as

photographers posing people and let alone the fear

of someone being posed.

Then, of course, the technique, as we discussed,

and really the most important thing that we've

established in previous episodes, that the emotional attachment

and what's happening in the photograph is ultimately

the most important thing.

So what I want to do now is

show you a couple of examples and walk

through those examples at real weddings, and then

we'll dive into these steps properly so that

you can actually follow these steps.

And if ever you forget one of the

steps and you feel more confident with one

or the other, you can go back to

maybe lighting or posing or location and say,

all right, well, I need to refresh memory

about what Jerry said about this and that

and whatever.

So let's now show you these five steps

in action, and I'll walk through the video

as well.

Okay, so here we have a couple.

We've got beautiful light.

You can basically see the light falling on

them quite nicely.

There's a shadow on camera right or their

left.

So that's gonna give us some beautiful depth

and dimension on their face.

So light is leading us here.

Now we see the cars in that particular

position.

So then I'm thinking, well, I want a

reflection.

So I'm gonna put my lens close to

the reflective surface, get that reflection.

So I've got light location.

I'll pose him, his face is right on

her cheek.

Then I get my technique right, my exposure,

my lens choice.

Then I make them laugh, I get that

emotion.

And now we see those five steps in

action.

So let's reiterate, light led me here.

Location, well, that was basically the windshield or

the windscreen of the car.

And of course, we've got that sort of

environmental background, light, location, pose.

Well, I wanted them close enough and intimate

enough.

So the architecture is quite emotional as in

his face is on her cheek.

And if you saw that video, you would

see that he was just sort of, I

just had kissed her on the cheek.

And there's no emotion attached to that, kissed

her on the cheek, but he was sort

of looking out into nowhere.

I'm like, you know, I think I forgot

what I said.

I said, look, you know, pretend like you

enjoy it.

Then he started laughing.

So those five steps are very clearly on

display.

If I waited for this moment for them

to just happen to walk past the car,

lean up against the car, him kiss on

the cheek, the lighting is all beautiful.

Look, the reflection's all nice.

And I happen to be with my camera

with the right lens, with the right exposure,

then yes, I would have taken that photograph.

But that's not the way it works.

What we have seen very clearly are those

five steps on display.

Let me show you one more before we

break down these five steps very clearly and

concisely into a digestible fashion.

So let's look at this shot now.

This was at a beautiful wedding in New

South Wales, as I've mentioned in previous segments,

the state where Sydney is in, in Australia.

So I'm seeing this beautiful fairy tale and

we've got beautiful backlight being diffused by this

piece of material.

So now we've got this gorgeous backlight and

this open shade in front of them.

So you've got beautiful light.

Everything's looking beautiful.

Life is good.

So what I'm doing is light led me

here.

Location, well, it wouldn't take a rocket scientist

or a genius to work out that this

would be a great place to photograph a

bride and a groom.

So light led me here.

Location, well, that's perfect.

So now I'm posing them.

I'm putting them in a group sort of

kind of environment.

It's almost like a TV show.

It's almost like they're posing in a way

that's taking advantage of the camera angle where

I can see them very clearly.

Now, as you can see, I've got the

girls flanking this particular shot.

I've got guy and girl, boy, girl, boy,

girl.

I've got two guys there as well, not

to make it so predictable, but I'm giving

them something to do.

Half the battle with creativity or any kind

of concept is basically committing to an idea.

So now I'm telling them not to look

at me.

And of course, if I say to you

right now, don't look at the camera or

don't look at the screen, then you will

do that.

But then, so I've got to say, hear

my voice, but don't look at the camera.

And I said, I want you to follow

my lead and follow my direction.

So literally everywhere, every single place where someone

is looking, I told them where to look.

Now, if I was to show you that

photograph without showing you how it was actually

executed, that you would basically say, oh my

God, Jerry, you're so lucky you have this

incredible bridal party.

Isn't that fun?

Isn't that great?

I'm saying to you guys that this does

not happen by accident.

This is probably a signature photograph of mine

that really displays to you those five steps

and what my style is all about.

So if you want to perfect this style,

you've come to the right place.

And that is making people look and feel

beautiful, immortalizing moments of families and friends and

doing it in a way that looks effortless.

This is a style that is not only

fulfilling as a photographer, but it's also very

commercially attractive.

People love this style because people all want

to look beautiful.

They all want to look natural.

And these are the five steps in action.

So remember too, guys, that ultimately whatever I'm

teaching in these courses, that I'm mentioning rules

and things like that, but they're not really

rules.

I call them common denominators.

So when I say something, it's really only

my opinion.

I cannot tell you this is the way

you should do it.

No one can tell you that.

You simply, you follow the advice of someone

that you respect and admire.

Hopefully that's me.

And now we're sharing some ideas.

So in this case, that they are not

rules that can't be broken.

I'm saying after almost three decades of photographing

professionally, I believe this will work most of

the time with this kind of girl, with

this dress, with this hair in this location

because of these reasons.

And if you agree, then now we've got

a starting point and we've got something to

follow along as well.

So don't think of them as absolutes.

Remember too, guys, that when you're executing these

five steps, I want you to remember slow

is smooth.

Smooth is fast.

That's not my saying.

That's a saying in the US Army, slow

down the approach and just know that if

you can slow down these steps, light, location,

pose, technique, emotion, you will nail them.

Otherwise you're juggling too many things at the

one time.

Just one step at a time.

How do you eat an elephant?

One bite at a time.

Remember these words when you're struggling on a

wedding day.

Slow is smooth.

Smooth is fast.

Follow the steps.

Light, location, pose, technique, emotion.