All language subtitles for 1. The Most Important Thing

So what is the most important thing in

a photograph?

Has anyone ever asked you that question?

Or perhaps have you thought about that yourself?

Now, if you wanna be commercially successful, you

need to know the answer to this question.

And in fact, if you wanna be a

great wedding photographer and you wanna be commercially

successful in this endeavor, well, of course it

all starts with what you present to your

clients.

So what is the most important thing in

a photograph?

I want you to think about it in

your mind right now.

And let's see if I can guess what

you're about to say.

You might, some of you might be technically

orientated.

You might be maybe saying, well, it's lighting,

it's emotion, or it's feeling, it's the story.

It could be any number of those things.

It just could be something technical.

But I'm here to tell you that it'll

surprise you what the answer to this question

is because it's actually even more obvious than

you think.

If I was to show you a photo

like this, would you call this an award

-winning photograph?

Well, first of all, it's straight out of

the camera.

There's no Photoshop.

It's literally straight out of the camera.

This is basically a family portrait.

We've got the groom here, the mom and

dad, and the two brothers.

This basically tells us what this family looks

like.

That's pretty much it.

Okay, now, if this was, let's say if

this was you, okay, so you were this

guy, and this photograph was shown to you,

you would get the overall sense of the

photograph, but then you would go straight to

who you are and say, do I look

handsome in this photograph?

Well, I, yep, I've got one chin, great.

My eyes look good, I look slim, got

a nice smile.

I like this photograph.

This is a good photograph.

So what happens is that when we look

at a photograph of ourselves, we first ask,

do we like ourselves in this photograph?

Do I look cute?

Do I look handsome?

Do I look cool?

And so on.

See, women, guys have three problems aesthetically.

You would say gut, as in does my

belly look big?

Do I have a double chin?

Do I have a bald head?

Three problems.

Guess what women have?

Everything.

They focus on everything.

You have to know, if you photograph a

bride, she's conscious of everything.

Her hair, her skin, her face, is she

slim or not?

Has she got curves in the right places

and so on?

Their little rolls of skin hanging over the

dress and so on and so on and

so on.

Like, they're conscious of everything, and that's fine.

Certainly, it's probably, there's more pressure on women

from society to look perfect than guys.

And certainly, with guys, we're wearing a suit,

so it's a lot more forgiving.

But what I'm saying is we have to

know that most people just wanna look cute

and look beautiful and stuff.

But is that the most important thing, really?

Well, we'll come to that in a moment.

After this photograph was taken, so this is

a historical photograph, that this is what this

family looks like, now we get them to

interact.

Now it tells us a little bit more

about, say, who they are, the way they

interact and they have fun.

Now, I come from a Greek background.

I consider myself Greek, so I speak Greek.

My parents are Greek-born, and we have

a very huge, big Greek culture in Melbourne.

So I understand, and I have two brothers,

so there's three boys and parents, so I

identify a lot with this family.

So I know, and if you've ever seen

my big, fat Greek wedding, the movie, they're,

you know, not exposed to Greek culture.

There's a lot of truth to it, although

it's quite over the top.

Us Greeks, we're quite dramatic, we're over the

top, and we celebrate, we're loud, and, you

know, and so on.

So I got the groom in the foreground,

and I got all the family and the

parents to ham it up and scream and

even slap the sun in the head and

all that kind of stuff.

So you can see now that this photograph

is a lot more meaningful.

Now, do we still look good in the

photograph?

I would like to think that they all

look pretty good, but it's actually becoming more

meaningful, therefore it's more valuable.

Well, now we're talking.

Then I'm like, oh, come on, I give

him a hug.

He turns around, then the dad offers him

a bit of a hug, and the brothers

are totally into it, they're having fun, and

then he hugs him.

This would not have happened unless I somewhat

directed it, and that's the thing is that

I believe, in my personal philosophy, is that

you are going to have moments where you

capture, because they're beautiful, they're in front of

you.

You happen to be with a beautiful, spontaneous,

or loud, or obnoxious, or fun, or over

-the-top, soft, cuddly, romantic, whatever it may

be, there's gonna be some polarizing emotion on

a wedding day where your life is easy.

You stand back with a long lens, and

you just shoot away, and you're the great

photographer.

Well, no, you just had great moments.

I mean, it was pretty easy to click

the camera.

I believe a huge difference between a good

photographer and a great photographer is that this.

Many photographers will just wait for the moment,

and I'm encouraging you to make the moment

because that is what will differentiate you.

Let me explain even further.

Let's say we could simulate a wedding.

Let's say there were actors, and same experience.

In other words, there was a play of

sorts, okay?

There was some kind of game, or something

that we could do to emulate the exact

same wedding, and every photographer could put their

own spin on this particular wedding.

How would we do that?

What would make someone stand out?

Now, if every photographer, let's say, did not,

was not, say, proactive, and you simply photographed

this wedding photojournalistically, in other words, you didn't

pose a single finger, and you just photographed

this wedding as it happened, yes, is there

skill as a photojournalist?

Absolutely.

How to be in the right place at

the right time, how to anticipate moments, how

to read energy, how to shift energy without

saying a single word, what's more important, like

where to stand, all these different things.

There's absolutely a skill.

How to crop, lens choice, exposure, all these

different things, incredibly important, but let's say that

every photographer that had this experience on this

wedding that was simulating a real wedding, and

we all photographed the same wedding, and who

would stand out?

Well, I'm suggesting that, as a photojournalist, and

things happening in front of them, if this

wedding was, let's say, a boring wedding, let's

say, and I say that with a bit

of a whisper, because everyone likes to think

their wedding is exciting and beautiful and all

that kind of thing, it might just be

one of those weddings where everyone's a little

bit nervous.

Maybe the family dynamics are a bit challenging.

Maybe the parents are broken up.

Maybe they're barely on speaking terms.

Maybe an uncle has just passed away.

Maybe the wedding was a bit modest.

Maybe they just lost their home.

Who knows what happens, but a wedding sometimes

is not a fairy tale.

In fact, out of 20 weddings, maybe one

is a fairy tale, and yes, as a

helpless romantic, I like to believe in love,

and I do believe in love, and I

believe that the love is there, and sometimes

what you have to do is just give

people permission to feel beautiful about themselves, about

each other and the story, and that's where

the true magic happens.

So I'm suggesting that my approach to photography

is not a, dare I say it, a

lazy one.

Sit back, hope for the best.

No, it is proactive.

So let me show you an even better

photograph of this family.

So we photographed that safe one looking in

the camera smiling, great.

Then we got them to interact.

That was beautiful.

Then we had that one where the dad

was back slapping and having a bit of

fun, but then what happened was this.

I was photographing the boys, and then sort

of one of the groomsmen came out, and

he had a portable speaker, and he had

some Greek music on.

Now, I love Greek music.

I was raised with Greek music.

I listen to Greek music all the time

in my car and everything like that, even

sometimes when I'm working, and it was a

song that is like an anthem for Greeks.

Like if you're a Greek, you'd know this

song, and I knew it would inspire a

bit of energy.

So then I'm like, hey, crank it.

Like he was all, I think he almost

asked permission, like, is this too loud?

I said, no, no, no, crank it.

Then dad started dancing.

Now, there's a dancing Greek called the zebekiko.

Like it's like a freestyle, what they call

aeroplane dance for want of a better word.

And I'm like, well, wait a second here.

When Greeks dance, they pay homage and respect

to this one person dancing.

So everyone gets down, squats on one knee,

and pays respect to the person that's dancing.

But dad was there.

I encouraged the boys to basically, you know,

do the traditional thing.

Hey, let's celebrate your father.

Then I got one of the groomsmen to

grab the mother out.

And all of a sudden now, we have

mom, dad dancing, being celebrated by the actual,

their sons.

And I thought, wouldn't it be cool to

add an extra element?

And that is basically have the groomsmen in

the foreground clapping out of focus.

And then now, all of a sudden, we

get this photograph.

Now, let's go back to what we talked

about.

We said, what is the most important thing

in a photograph?

And many of you may have said, as

I suggested, that it could be lighting, it

could be emotion, it could be feeling.

And I said to you, I said to

you the vain answer.

We just wanna look pretty and cute and

handsome and cool.

I'm saying, once we make people look good

and beautiful and flattering and all that kind

of stuff, once we make them look pretty

and beautiful, then we want meaning.

And what I'm trying to say to you

is that for me, being Greek, having two

brothers, being in the Greek culture, understanding what

happens here is, for me, this now raises

in value.

Was it an incredibly difficult photograph to take?

Well, if they were doing that on their

own, I would have photographed that photo journalistically.

But that wouldn't have happened unless I directed

it.

So I strongly implore you that when you

watch the real weddings included in this bundle

and you see me, there'll be times where

I say nothing and there'll be times where

I'm directing and I'm getting in there and

saying a few different things or directing very

specifically, don't be afraid of that.

That is what will get you from a

photograph, let's say like this one to something

like this one.

Do they both serve the purpose?

Of course they do.

There's gonna be ones where the grandmother's gonna

expect that one looking into the camera, but

I'm telling you now, this will win every

time.

So can you imagine if you were placed

amongst 100 photographers and everyone photographed this very

reactively, and then here you are proactive, you

will photograph what's happening, but you will add

that beautiful moment of your own.

So what is the most important thing in

a photograph of yourself?

Well, let's now be realistic based upon what

we've just discussed.

Really, that photograph that you just saw is

creating a beautiful legacy.

In fact, I think from memory, I think

from memory, one of the brothers had seen

it, not the groom, one of the brothers

of the groom basically said, I can't believe

you, like you've created an incredible legacy for

our family.

Just came to me right now.

So what is the most important thing is

legacy, meaning, purpose, story, emotion, flattery, although we

feel like that's the most important thing or

we don't wanna believe it, but we do

wanna look beautiful and handsome and cool and

slim and all those different things.

We have to know that that becomes secondary.

That doesn't mean that you have to ignore

it because you could show a Pulitzer Prize

winning photograph of the frigging decade.

And if a bride doesn't look beautiful in

it, or there's something about it that's not

that flattering, she might dismiss it as a

bad photograph.

So I'm gonna teach you how to make

people look and feel beautiful, but also create

a legacy, meaning purpose, story and emotion through

the lens of your camera.

So we are going to learn how to

be reactive and proactive.

Combine that, that means you'll be unstoppable.