Original subtitles

So I want to give you some examples

on how repetition, experience and practice and correct

technique will always be your best teacher.

Because it's funny, like I've been teaching for

so long where when I show some of

my older work, people have actually said, Jerry,

I'm more inspired by your older work than

your newer, because it gives me hope.

The thing is that we all start somewhere.

We all have a point in our lives

where we want to be a photographer, as

in if you've chosen this industry.

And you're not that great.

We all suck when we start, right?

That's OK.

I'm saying that everyone sucks when they start

pretty much any new skill.

But I want to show you a handful

of examples of photographs that I've taken early

in my career and then how they've become

better and some little nuances.

And of course, we'll get into nitty gritty

sort of after the fact as well.

But this photograph, this is an engagement session.

I was inspired by the movie The Notebook,

that famous scene where the couple are kissing

in the rain.

But I wanted to do some shots where

they were kissing in the rain and then

maybe backlight the rain.

Now, I believe I'm one of, if not

the first person to really popularize the backlit

with rain industry, having done this decades ago.

But in this particular case, what I've done

here is I've got the beautiful emotional hands.

This was basically a hose.

So we put a hose on them because

you can't make it rain on cue unless

you put them on a hose.

So it was cold water.

We had a flash from behind.

We backlit them with flash.

We had a bit of video light, some

tungsten light hitting them in the front.

And then we've got this photograph.

Now, how has this shot evolved over the

years?

That's the question.

Well, I was actually at a wedding in

Sydney, in New South Wales, the state where

Sydney is in Australia.

And I walked outside in that thin, crisp

country air.

And there was bugs and dust particles hitting

my face.

And I'm like, if I backlight these little

suckers with flash, it's going to look like

rain.

Then the bride and groom were also obsessed

with the saxophone player.

And I thought, wait a second, if they

can actually come with the saxophone player outside,

they love the saxophone.

If I backlight them with flash, I might

get something like this.

And again, you would think that's rain.

But that is, in fact, bugs and dust

particles.

So it's really, really cool.

So again, a big difference between that previous

one and this one.

Am I saying this is better?

Maybe it's probably more meaningful and adds that

little extra element.

Then I was walking past a street vendor.

And they had these bubble guns, like the

guns that blow bubbles.

So I bought them.

And I got the bridal party to actually

blow the bubbles.

And then all of a sudden, we get

this one.

So then now you start to think, well,

wait a second.

Backlighting with flash in any kind of atmosphere.

It could be dust.

It could be bubbles.

It could be rain.

We would get a shot like this.

And of course, the light bounces between them.

And then we can get shots like this.

So this is the one that I popularized

quite a long time ago.

And again, please forgive me if someone else

was the first.

But I had introduced this kind of a

shot into the industry.

And now we see it so much.

It's almost bastardized this quite cool shot.

But it's become somewhat of a cliche.

Now, it is popular because it's a cool

effect.

And brides and grooms love it.

It just depends on what you want to

do.

And how did I do this?

Just for the sake of the argument, my

wife Melissa, she was about six feet behind

the couple.

The flash was on a monopod.

So she brings it up.

She brings it right behind the groom, points

the flash directly to the couple.

It bounces between their faces.

And that's why they get that beautiful glow.

And the cool thing is, you know it's

behind the groom, because you can see some

rain droplets above the bride.

So it's actually coming past here.

And of course, it was raining.

And there's no climbing involved there.

That was basically the shot that we did.

But again, do you see where we've come

from?

We've come from that shot at the engagement

session and come to this.

And even to the point where another couple

wanted this kind of a shot.

I'm like, well, it has to rain.

And it has to be dark.

There's two things that have to happen.

Otherwise, it's not going to happen.

So anyway, we did this.

It didn't rain on the wedding day.

The day after session, it did rain.

But it was during the day.

How am I going to get this look?

So what I did was I put them

at the fringe of a walkway with overhanging

trees.

So I exposed for the trees.

So can you imagine?

So we're out in the open shade.

There's clouds everywhere.

It's starting to rain.

We've got trees here.

I put them at the front of those

trees.

Now, the trees are quite dark because there's

not much detail there at all.

Because they're so dense, there's no little highlights

through those trees, no specular highlights.

So I isolate that particular tree and got

the exposure that it looks black.

There's my exposure.

Then I backlight them with flash.

A little bit of ambience was hitting them.

So I had isolated the trees to make

it black.

Had enough light hitting the front of them,

then with a flash between them.

And then we get something like this.

Now, would I have done this level of

sophistication if I hadn't practiced that over those

years?

Probably not.

The fact is that you'll get approached with

different things and different concepts in your career

where you just know, well, I know what's

going to happen here.

I've been through that before.

I've made that mistake.

Or I was inexperienced.

I simply just know what to do now.

Make sense?

This next shot was done in film, medium

format.

This was probably done, man, I'd say 20

odd years ago now.

So I had loved the idea of actually

photographing with candles.

So I got candles.

I brought them all in front of them.

And then we tilted their faces towards candles.

So a little side note tip here is

that when you're photographing with candlelight, the candlelight's

down low.

So let's say, for example, this table had

candles on it.

If the candlelight or light source is low,

that means it'll cause ugly shadows in the

upper cheekbones.

So therefore, if any kind of light source

is lower, that could be a reflection off

a tile for all I know, you need

to get the couple lean towards the light

source to actually somewhat get rid of those

shadows in the upper cheekbones, which we've sort

of pretty much done.

It's not as bad.

It's more forgiving on a guy than a

girl.

But you can see how I've given her

a little tilt of the face and sort

of chin forward and down to make that

more parallel.

So there we've done that shot.

That was 20-odd years ago.

I'd say maybe 15 years ago, this groom

came up to me and said, I want

a dramatic, really cool portrait of me and

the boys.

My first instinct was, I just looked at

them.

I just saw a bunch of mafia boys.

Like, they just looked like they were from

the movie Goodfellas and Scarface and all those

kind of movies.

So straightaway, I was thinking very dramatic.

Then I thought, OK, let me look around

and see what kind of dramatic lighting there

is.

And all I had at that point was

just candlelight, little tea candles.

So I gathered about 30 tea candles and

put them on a table.

And then I photographed the guys.

And when we talk about being proactive in

photography, I had directed every single expression in

this next photograph, which sounds a bit silly.

But so you can create a beautiful triangular

composition.

But unless you get emotion out of people,

why would they be sitting in front of

candles?

So first of all, cut the light source

out.

Otherwise, it's too obvious.

Then you've got to start looking at, well,

what story can I tell?

So my first instinct was, all right, well,

you look here.

You look that way.

The very, very first thing that I thought

in my brain was, get them to do

this.

Didn't second guess it.

And then we got this shot.

Now, people think this is done in Photoshop.

It's not.

In fact, the reason why you can't see

much detail above the heads of the first

row and the three guys on top is

because there's no light hitting their bodies.

So the candlelight was here and hitting their

faces.

And we've got this sort of beautiful expressions

in this great triangular composition.

Then finally, I was approached with a wedding

I shot well over five years ago.

I can't remember now.

It's been a long time.

In fact, probably more, seven or eight years

ago.

And this was a wedding in New York.

And this is one of those handful of

weddings that I said that was quite lavish

that I've done in my career.

It was at Cipriani in New York, in

case you've been there.

If you're playing along at home.

And so this photograph, it took a while

to produce.

So let me explain.

I photographed the story.

We had a beautiful story told.

The album was done.

The end of the night happened.

And we're saying goodbye.

And I saw this sort of opportunity uncover

itself in front of me.

And it was like, wouldn't it be cool

to have the bride and groom sharing a

beautiful moment with a disheveled background?

In other words, a metaphor of they've just

had an incredible party.

Now it's really them on their own.

That's their journey, right?

That's their time.

Had this idea in my head.

They said, Jerry, we love you.

We had a great day.

But we're done with the photographs.

We want to go to our after party

next door.

And I said, guys, you don't understand.

This photograph's going to be amazing.

Just trust me.

Let's do it together.

Try to convince them.

Nothing worked.

And I said, I'll tell you what.

We're going to sit here.

You have your after party.

If we are here by the time you

get back, you promise me that you'll give

me five minutes.

I was doing them the favor.

But they didn't realize that at this point.

Sure enough, Melissa, my former assistant, Sally, we

were there sitting there.

And they were giving me evil looks the

whole time.

It's like 1 o'clock in the morning,

1.30 in the morning.

And I'm like, no, I've got an idea

in my head.

And I can't move here until we're done.

Finally, they come back for the after party.

Because they had to go through where we

were sitting to go to the bridal room

to get their clothes and other personal things.

And I said, hey, we're here.

You promised me.

And we did this photograph.

And then this happened.

One of my favorite photographs of my career.

It wouldn't have happened unless I was patient,

unless I knew the big picture, unless I

knew how valuable, important, and meaningful this image

will be.

And by the way, they happened to order

a beautiful big double page spread enlargement in

their album and a wall art print.

And that was a couple of grand.

So if not for the love, guys, for

the money.

Like I'm saying to you, it wasn't about

the money.

I just wanted to produce something because I

could.

And I wanted to contribute to their beautiful

story.

But did it make a difference financially?

Well, yeah.

Can't it be for both?

Of course it can.

Now, let's combine the look of the guys

smoking the cigars around.

And then combine this look.

And then we can get that shot.

So what this segment is all about, guys,

is that just know that with repetition, experience,

and practice, and practicing good technique, that you

will get better and better.

And you will be more refined.

And then you'll use your experience of those

shoots that you've done before to combine them

together in some look that you would have

never dreamt of at the start of your

career.

Although simplicity, it is quite simple.

You'll just know that you need to just

run those miles and get that wisdom and

that street smut under your belt.

Let's look at another example.

Now, of course, we have off-camera flash

that can do this kind of look very,

very easily.

But in the days where there was no

off-camera flash, there was a long sync

cord.

And then you would have to pop a

flash from behind.

This was done with video light.

And this was done many, many years ago.

So now I've got off-camera flash.

And I can, again, put that flash behind

them, use the idea of Christmas lights.

And I stumbled across this amazing array of

Christmas lights.

I think this was like in New South

Wales in Australia.

There was some exhibit.

And they had these beautiful repeating Christmas lights.

I was at a workshop showing this technique

to my students.

And I thought, how cool would it be

to actually do something like this?

So again, I put the flash six feet

behind the groom, bounce between them.

I expose for the ambience first.

And then I add my flash.

And I get the shot.

So again, do you see how this kind

of shot has been improved and perfected?

And I'm not saying perfected, as in it's

perfect, as in it's flawless.

I'm saying I'm just getting better the more

times I do it.

And then as a Nikon ambassador, I was

very proud that probably one of the highlights

of my career was being asked to photograph

the campaign for the wedding and the fashion

industry for the D850, sort of a landmark

camera for Nikon, high megapixel, 45 megapixel, whatever

it is.

And I shot this photograph.

I had used inspiration from this to come

up with this.

But do you see how there's more of

a glow on her?

And I'm shooting almost over the shoulder of

the groom.

So I've got light protruding in, having that

beautiful softness of light, turning her bust towards

the light.

So I get a tickle of light on

her bust.

And then I actually manufacture the Christmas lights,

as in I bring them on set to

do it.

And then at one point, I sort of

made them laugh.

The light reflected off him.

She was further back.

So then it's a bit more about her.

It's tack sharp on her eye, but it's

a different technique.

And we had a smoke and a can.

And all of a sudden, we get these

shots.

So guys, this segment is really to show

to you and prove to you that, yes,

repetition, experience, and practice, in fact, will be

your best teacher.

Never forgo the importance of actually understanding and

recreating what maybe you'll be doing on a

wedding day or at a portrait session, saying,

all right, well, what do I do now?

I literally, right now, where I'm teaching next

door at my place, I have a mannequin.

And it's female, skin tone, of course.

And if I'm photographing a complex situation, let's

say when the girl or guy, whatever, is

getting hair and makeup done or wardrobe, I

will be practicing my lighting on this mannequin.

So I know that when the model's on

set, I'm done.

The hair light's done, the main light, fill

light, whatever I'm using.

Or I simply want to practice a technique

that I haven't really done before.

I will get my mannequin out.

They're not going to say a word to

me.

They'll literally be my perfect mannequin the whole

day and a model for me the whole

day.

And that's it.

Life is good.

So remember, this will make you more confident.

The more you prepare, the more experience you

have, the more street smart that you have.

When you're there, approach with something.

Oh my god, I know this.

I've got this.

I've done this before.

Life is good.

You start to enjoy it.

You get better shots.

You show the couple.

They're all excited.

And it's a vicious cycle.

So just know that you have to shoot

a lot to get to the point where

this is either infinitely better or different than

perhaps the first time I tried it.

So enjoy the ride, my friends.

Please just understand it's not about always the

result.

The process will always be more fruitful.