All language subtitles for 5. Walking

All right guys, we've talked about walking shots

and I wanna talk to you about actually

walking away from the camera.

There's always gonna be a time, or perhaps

there's been a time in your career where

you've done walking shots with a bride and

groom walking away from the camera and looking

back at the camera and it looks really

awkward and I'll tell you why.

So I'll get you guys to actually turn

around and face the door and hold hands.

And what I'd like you to do is

I want you to bring your outer feet

towards the actual camera, towards me, pardon me.

Actually no, do the opposite.

So bring the inner legs forward.

Okay, now what I'd like you to do

is try to look back at this camera.

Right, it's a little bit hard, right?

It just feels awkward.

So what's gonna happen is that you might

get your bride and groom walking away from

the camera and then just yell, hey, look

at me and you've caught them with their

inner legs forward.

That's tough.

Okay, let's go back again, unravel.

Now what I'd like you to do is

bring your inner legs as in the ones

right next to each other out towards me.

So Dylan, your right leg back.

Yep, left leg back.

Now come a little bit closer together.

Bring your feet like Dylan, your left foot,

Lisa, your right foot over the other one.

That's it and now turn back, look at

me.

It's a lot easier, okay?

So it makes a lot easier.

So either you get them to walk with

their opposite, the opposing legs and then you

catch them at this point.

Me personally, I actually like to do a

shot like this where it feels like they're

walking but we get the actual outer legs

or the inner legs backwards and it makes

it so much easier.

While we're there, actually before we go on,

I actually got another idea.

So let's say for example, you wanted to

feature the bride and not the groom.

You actually do the opposite with his feet.

So Dylan, do me a favor, take one

step forward.

That's it.

Now put your right foot forward.

Your other right foot forward and back.

So you got left and went back.

You did the complete opposite that I said.

That's awesome.

Okay, now bring your left foot.

Okay, so your west foot.

A bit more behind your right.

There you go.

Hand in the pocket.

Now slightly turn towards your bride.

Okay, now, so see what happens now is

that we're actually, we're deliberately putting his right

leg forward and his left foot back.

So we're seeing a suggestion of him and

this is more about the bride.

Now let's do the opposite.

Okay, so Dylan, bring your right foot back

now.

Right foot right back.

That's it.

Bring your left foot a bit more over

your right.

Bit more, bit more, bit more.

Okay, now Lisa, bring your left foot forward.

Now come back up one little step this

way.

Good.

Now you're looking at him because it's a

little bit awkward.

Your right foot is back.

Naturally, you can't turn over your shoulder as

much as Dylan.

Now Dylan, turn your body.

Twist your hips a bit more towards me.

More, more.

And look back over your shoulder back at

me.

You sort of see?

So now you can actually get him in

the shot and featuring him and then the

bride is a suggestion.

So there's a good way of doing it.

All right.

If, for example, now a couple of my

so-called common denominators, where they break a

little bit, guys, is when, as far as

walking shots, is when they're walking away.

Let me give an example.

So Dylan, I'm gonna get you right here

and Lisa, I'm gonna get you behind.

And let's say, for example, we're doing a

kind of shot where Dylan is walking and

basically you're just holding her and you're sort

of taking her for a walk, but you're

leading the way.

So now I want you to both face

that way.

Okay.

But you're slightly ahead, Dylan.

That's it.

Good.

Now, Lisa, I want you to hold your

dress and Dylan, come a little bit closer

to me.

There you go.

Come a little bit more forward.

Beautiful.

Now, watch what happens.

Now, according to my suggestion, I've always said,

bend the leg that's closest to the camera

and never have a partner leg.

So what I'd like you to do, so

even though that in this case, this actually

works, that suggestion, as in the leg that's

closest to me is the one that actually

should go over.

Let's do that.

So put your right foot forward.

Okay, good.

And then your left hand in your pocket

if it's not already.

And you're gonna look back at your missus

there, mate.

Okay.

So you see there's a bit of motion

there.

Now, with Lisa, she's just having her right

arm straight.

So it looks a little bit weird.

So she's gonna bend her elbow up a

little bit.

Good.

And you're gonna put your right foot forward

there to me.

Gorgeous.

Now, do you see how there's harmony and

repetition?

That works really beautifully.

Watch what happens when they part their feet.

So let's just switch legs.

So both of your left feet forward.

Do you sort of see how the gap

in the leg and now the dress looks

a little bit wider?

It just looks a little bit clumsy and

a little bit awkward.

So this almost goes against, it goes with

one of my suggestions, but it goes against

another.

Let me explain.

Let's go back to where you were before.

Okay.

So right foot forward.

Yep.

So I said to you earlier, if you

can bring this toe a little bit more

this way.

No, so bring the heel back, but keep

the toe there.

Good.

All right, perfect.

So remember when I basically said that when

we do walking shots, the outer legs should

go there.

So outer legs in, out, in, out.

And when they're out is when we photograph.

Because we're saying that when we walk, that

the bride is turning towards the groom and

vice versa, and they're facing each other and

the energy is shifting towards each other.

That's what you want.

Now, this goes against that particular, that anomaly,

or it becomes an anomaly because now his

right leg is this way.

It's not really emotional because his energy is

really shifting this way.

So I'm saying to you that this is

where I break that rule where it actually

looks better if his legs on this side

and looking over his shoulder or looking exactly

straight ahead, other than the other ways.

Let's say if she keeps her foot like

that, and then he brings his left foot

forward.

So switch your legs and your body weight.

See, it just, something doesn't work.

I always find that the front leg should

be above the other one when it comes

to walking, especially side on.

Let's do that.

Your right leg forward.

And then you're slowly turning your shoulders around.

And even this could be also the escort

arm.

That's actually more comfortable for him.

And then just sort of lean forward, bend

that shoulder back, the elbow back, and you're

looking back at her.

Good.

And then let's have a look.

Now, your legs are probably too pronounced.

So bring your feet a little bit closer

together, both of you.

Here you go, good.

And then, so I would take a shot

like this, bang, and then I could easily

flip it and then get Lisa in the

shot.

Now, guys, before you move an inch, pretend

you're on a turntable as we discussed earlier.

And I want you to keep that pose,

but do a 180 degrees on me.

Keep going, keep going, keep going, keep going,

keep going.

Stop.

And now look at your man.

Isn't that beautiful?

So now, do you see how that works?

Because now we're, I love the fact that

you're looking at me.

So in love, that's awesome.

And it's like, you're actually looking at him

like you love him, which you do, but

I love seeing it.

So I just wanted to acknowledge that.

But she could be looking at him.

She could be looking back at me laughing,

giggling.

Now, do you see how now her left

hand is chopped off?

Bring, hold your hands together, but bring them

down.

There you go.

So now I can see your hands.

That actually looks better.

So there are so many, there's so many

things here, guys.

Now, remember too, so you guys stay where

you are.

Remember when Dylan was this way, we said

his leg looks better that way when that

front leg is over the other one.

Now that we've shifted back, it actually becomes

the same thing.

His left leg is back, but I don't

see that awkwardness that I saw the other

time.

So just remember that there's always exceptions to

the rule.

And again, they're not rules.

They're common denominators.

After almost three decades of shooting, I feel

that this is the best way based upon

my experience with that girl, with that dress,

with that suit, with these guys in this

particular way.

If your gut's telling you that something looks

a little bit awkward, it probably does, and

it probably is.

So just remember that.

So just unravel a little bit.

So just remember, guys, walking shots, there is

a science to it.

There's not just, hey, guys, go for a

walk and hope for the best because it

could be out of sync.

It could be a little bit clumsy.

People could be out of the light.

It could be, there could be something wrong.

All right, I wanna talk a bit now

about what I call almost posing concepts.

So giving you a place to start because

I'm giving you principles behind posing so that

hopefully you never really run out of poses

ever again, but ultimately, sometimes we just need

a place to begin.

Where do we begin?

Well, we started off with that traditional pose,

which was, in fact, let's start there again.

So you guys were, arms were in each

other's waist.

You were looking at the camera and you

were holding the flowers.

So point the toe, bend the knee, shift

the weight back.

This hand was in the pocket from memory

and this was just there.

All right, there's a great way to start.

There's your traditional full-length pose, great.

But what else do you do with a

bride and a groom?

And by the way, guys, just so you

know, I'm often saying bride and groom.

I love that in most countries and most

developed countries that same-sex weddings are allowed

and they should be.

I think that it's great.

So just know that I'm not being biased

to a heterosexual couple.

It could be two guys, it could be

two girls.

I don't really care, but for the sake

of this conversation, I am saying bride and

groom a lot, but please know that I'm

not discriminating against anything or anyone.

I've got to start somewhere.

All right, so let's discuss this.

So this is a formal, traditional full-length

portrait.

Fantastic, bang, we've got that shot.

Let's get rid of the flowers for a

second and let's think of posing concepts or

foundation poses of somewhere to start.

First of all, let's just go shoulder to

shoulder, facing me perfectly.

Okay, come a little micro steps this way

and a couple of little steps forward.

So that's it, great.

All right, so what's been popularized over the

years is a bride and groom or two

guys, two girls, whatever, looking blank with no

expression, looking in the camera.

Who said that that was a good idea?

This is just, I don't, personally, I'm biased

against it because there's no emotion.

It doesn't feel right.

You could just do a couple of things

that could just break the monotony of what

appears to be a bride and groom waiting

to be shot on a firing squad, okay?

So let's talk about this.

So right now, you know, let's hold, like

just hold hands there.

So right now, this is the, what, the

American gothic, like you feel like someone's gonna

be holding a pitchfork or whatever it may

be.

I just feel there's no emotion to it.

And I get the fact that in some

cultures, arguably, where you are not even allowed

to touch, like some acidic Jewish weddings, like

strong Orthodox Jewish weddings where a bride and

groom can't even touch, then you almost have

to emulate that they're in love and they've

got beautiful feeling without doing it.

Now, how would I do something like that?

I would basically shoot over the shoulder of

the bride and the groom.

I would increase my depth of field and

then I would give the illusion that our

couple are together or touching, or if I

didn't want to create that illusion, I'd make

sure there's always air between the couple.

So that's great.

In this case, I think that we could

just do one or two things to break

the monotony of what would be a logical

place to start.

As in, if you were inexperienced photographer, you

would get the bride and groom just to

sort of look in front of you and

stay still and start somewhere facing the camera,

but they're waiting for a photograph.

What do you do?

Well, I find that if you have the

guy just sort of straight on, in fact,

if you turn his body this way, let's

say for example now, you'll see very clearly

that she looks wider than him because he's

on an angle.

So my suggestion is you'd almost never do

that unless you're shooting over the shoulder of

the groom.

Because if I shoot over the shoulder of

the groom, I'm getting a bit more of

a wingspan, I'm actually hiding a bit of

her body.

And that's basically, it doesn't matter whether they're

slim, doesn't matter whether they're plus size or

in between or whatever it may be.

So I would almost never do a shoulder

to shoulder shot like this.

I would always at least create a little

bit of movement with the bride.

So let's do that.

So now, what I'd like you to do,

mate, you're standing perfectly straight like this, but

now your arms around her waist and your

arms around there as well.

So you're turning your body into his.

So he's flat to the camera.

So before he turned his body in, so

what I want you to do now, Lisa,

is point your toe towards the camera, slide

your heel back in, bend the knee, shift

the weight back, shoulders back.

Now, this hand could be in a few

places.

You could either put that hand right on

his hand.

That hand on his hand basically says, I

love where your hand is.

This could also be holding the flowers, okay?

And we could hide this hand because it

might be covering up the thinnest part of

her waist as we discussed.

But do you see, looking back now, now,

actually looking back now, so it's funny because

when you pose something, it may feel and

look a certain way when you're there, but

I find that when you step back, before

you even look at the camera, you get

to look and see if it's awkward or

not.

Here's a good common problem.

I'm glad we're seeing these things because we

can help you correct them.

He's actually putting his arm, his left arm

behind Lisa, and it's a little bit high.

It's riding up the jacket a little bit.

So we can't do that.

So here's what happens too.

So he was front on, and his instinct

is telling him to turn his body this

way, but his feet are facing the camera.

So the problem is, that also highlights to

you a problem that we often have, and

that is that feet can't be like this,

and the upper body, shoulders like this.

It just doesn't work, doesn't feel right.

So just remember that posing starts from the

feet.

That'll make everything more relaxed and so on.

Personally, again, I don't like having, a part

between the feet of the groom.

It doesn't work for me.

If you remember, I like the idea of

crossing that leg over.

So Dylan, do me a favor.

So with your right foot, just put it

like this, and see if you can put

it up to a point.

Yep, so you see how now there's a

little bit more finesse there, and then we

relax that jacket a little bit, make sure

that arm is a little bit lower.

That's it, beautiful.

And you can turn your shoulder right in,

right more, beautiful.

And do you see how now we're creating

a little bit more movement in the body

of the groom?

This is not meant to be incredibly romantic.

This is just a bit of a variation

of a foundation pose, full length, rather than

just shoulder to shoulder, flat looking into the

camera, or beyond that traditional pose where she

was holding the flowers and everything like that.

Now, where could we go from here?

Now, yes, he's very happy because he's got

his hand on her butt.

If he wants a bit of that feeling,

he can do that back this way, and

then we can totally miss that.

Again, bend that knee a little bit more,

more pronounced, shoulders back, arch the booty there,

beautiful.

And then she can either hold the flowers

or not, or she can put her hand

right here.

Be careful that the arm is not pressing

up against the body as long as there's

breathing space.

Now, when it's cold, also remember that sometimes

the weather could give you an idea for

a shot.

Now, I don't normally like chopping off fingers,

and if you look at this camera right

now, you probably know that I should have

learned my lesson when I was four.

42 years ago, I cut my finger, but

that's okay.

But I don't mind when, let's say the

bride wants to bring the hand in the

chest, I think that's really pretty.

And it's an illusion of just a warmth

and security, and it's got a beautiful feeling.

Now, that's where I can break the rule

of not chopping off fingers and all that

kind of stuff, no issue, or very simply,

although I always like posing to be mirrored.

In other words, if this is romantic, I

like the bodies to be romantic.

Now, their faces are quite beautiful and together,

but this hand is saying, I don't really

care.

Now, really, really important that you have to

understand that every part of the body with

the pose, and in fact, lighting, mood, location,

cropping, should amplify what you're trying to say

to the viewer of this photograph.

In this case, I'm not really trying to

be too sexy or romantic.

This is more really about the groom.

I'm basically saying about the groom, hey, I've

got this gorgeous girl sort of draped on

me, so to speak, as in the groom,

but I don't really care.

Like, it's all about me, I'm really cool.

So that's the metaphor that we're trying to

say.

So I'm not trying to be romantic.

She's trying to get all involved.

Turn your face into his, and then turn

your face a touch to the left, chin

up a little bit, and then connect.

There, beautiful.

Now, this hand, either we go four fingers

behind the ear and slightly bend it, but

again, this is more of an editorial shot

because it's not really about emotion.

But you see as well, you could be

posing a bride, and then she could totally

forget the lower part of her body, remember?

Point the toe, bend the knee, shift the

weight back.

There we go, bang.

So now we have this beautiful little pose.

Now, don't forget that when you are photographing,

when you are posing, that it is not

just about that initial instinct that this was

gonna be a full-length portrait.

Sometimes, I'll pose something full-length and think,

you know what?

I think close-up works a lot better.

I'm gonna totally just ignore the full-length

part of it and go close-up.

Even if the full-length shot was beautiful

as it was already, take that full-length

portrait.

Don't waste it because you wanna sell the

spread of a wedding or a portrait album.

So now you take that full-length portrait,

then go close-up, change your angle, perspective,

cropping, and all of a sudden, I've got

the spread of my album.

Don't waste 300 shots on one scene.

Take three, four, five.

Be done knowing that in your album, you'll

only have two or three photographs on that

spread regardless.

So there we go.

If we want a little bit more engagement,

that's, of course, now he has to turn

his body towards the bride.

Now, actually, keep your hand in your pocket,

but turn your body and your feet.

You can unravel your feet now.

So turn your feet properly.

This is a common mistake.

Let's go for a kiss.

Let's see if you guys kiss the right

way.

Yeah, see, isn't it funny?

Okay, this is perfectly imperfect.

Perfectly imperfect.

Why?

Is because it's teaching us a valuable lesson.

I guarantee you guys that if you look

back at your folio, you look at your

kissing shots, if you're already a photographer, you

will notice that you've got kissing shots.

You can breathe now a little bit.

You've got kissing shots where the groom's got

his hand in his pocket, and actually, just

now, in the last few seconds, Dylan just

bent his leg.

Go straight again with your leg there.

When the groom's leg is straight, especially that

front one, there is no energy shifting towards

the bride.

And also, with his hand in his pocket,

his face might be saying, I love you,

that's an awesome kiss, but the hand is

saying, well, I don't really care, I mean,

you're awesome, but not really that awesome.

So just remember, kissing, romantic, interactive, playful, everything.

Take that hand out of the pocket.

Let's do that now, Dylan.

And basically hold her where it feels comfortable.

See how she automatically brought her elbow out,

and now her arm is off her body.

He's slightly bending his knee.

Bring your lower part of your bodies together,

and then put your toe beyond his foot.

Hug him with the leg, and then now

we've got beautiful shape.

Turn towards us a little bit, twist this

way, guys.

Perfect, a bit more, a bit more.

Beautiful, that hand on the back of the

head again.

That right hand, darling.

That's gorgeous, beautiful.

Now, both of you, upper bodies, lean towards

me.

And then relax those fingers, good.

And now, if you wanted to, turn your

face towards me there for me, Lisa.

Gorgeous.

Now, right now, he's right into her.

I call this what my girl interrupted look.

If you want to just turn a bit

more towards this other camera.

Beautiful, just there.

So they're in a moment, and she's just

basically totally into him, and then all of

a sudden, she just glances at the actual

camera, and it's got that beautiful sort of

voyeuristic sort of feel which I absolutely love.

So remember that one shot could flow to

the other and the other and so on

and so forth.

Okay, so we've talked a little bit about

the foundation poses in terms of full length

looking at the camera.

So we had that traditional one.

We said, well, I said, that if they're

both towards the camera, it looks a bit

flat and unemotional, and that's okay.

That might suit some cultures depending on what

you're doing and what you like.

But if just changing Lisa in as we

saw just breaks that monotony of both being

straight.

And then of course, when we got Dylan

to just do that with his feet, it

looked really awesome.

Once you start turning into each other, there's

several things that you can do.

So let's start looking at those options.

So you're facing each other right now.

So I want you to cuddle up to

each other, just come a touch forward.

That's it, and forward towards me.

I want you to hold each other and

then guys come a touch back this way.

A bit more.

Beautiful, just there.

Great.

So first of all, let's bring the hands

on the hips like you're doing right there.

And Lisa, your hands on his hands.

Okay.

Your right hand, just bring it around his

body so I don't really see it so

that you're nice and comfortable.

Bring it lower though, underneath his armpit or

something like that.

Beautiful.

Okay.

So that hand of Lisa's saying, I love

where your hand is.

Now, Lisa, put your hand on his forearm

like we talked about.

Yeah, there you go.

Do you see how much more emotional that

hand is?

Now bring it on his bicep the way

I taught you.

There you go.

So you see how she started and slid

it down?

That's the thing guys, once you actually teach

your brides what you're doing and why you're

doing it, they'll get into it straight away

because they're saying, I don't wanna look unemotional.

I don't wanna look not in love and

all that kind of stuff.

Bring your hand on his face.

Beautiful.

See that little slight bend, she slid it

down and or we can actually bring her

right hand, bring it out underneath his armpit

and then bring it around the back of

his head and then slide it down.

That's it, beautiful.

Now just turn a little bit this way

so we can see it from this angle.

Other way.

Beautiful, beautiful.

Good.

Now we said that her nose will be

on the outside of the kiss.

Let's do that.

Good.

Chins up, upper bodies towards me and then

point your toe down, get your knees touching,

bit of a shape.

Look at how straight away, how beautiful that

was.

His right hand now is covering up the

waist at slight touch.

So he's gonna slide his right hand towards

him a little bit.

There you go, beautiful.

Now we see that beautiful gap.

Now from this position, we can do so

many things.

They can kiss, they can almost kiss, they

can kiss and smile.

We can kiss his cheek.

Let's do that.

Let's just kiss his cheek, kiss his temple.

Beautiful.

Now let's do the opposite.

Now he's gonna kiss your neck.

Beautiful.

Let's kiss her cheek.

Let's kiss her temple.

Let's whisper in her ear.

Let's whisper in his ear.

Do you see how quickly we went from

one pose to the other?

Because the sensibilities of those shots match because

we're all romantic, we're cuddly, we're playful, we're

sexy, whatever.

All we need is two, three shots to

get in there and use the spread of

a wedding gown.

Now that I'm talking and talking to the

camera right now, do you see how they've

settled into this beautiful forehead touching shot?

I can't really see them.

So again, I'm gonna basically say, stay where

you are.

Guys, turn your faces outwards towards me.

There we go.

Beautiful.

I love this because now Dylan's looking into

nowhere saying, where do I look?

I'm like, Dylan, if I were you, I'd

look at the view, hashtag boobies.

And then we take a beautiful shot.

And then she's giggling, chin up a little

bit, have some fun.

Now, of course, I don't recommend to say

that to every bride and groom.

I know the guys, I know that wouldn't

be offended.

And I know they're still smiling, but how

beautiful is that shot that we've got there

now?

The cool thing is that not only do

we have a great full length shot, I

would get close up now and have some

fun and change my angle and do it

all over again.

Remember, posing is not good just from one

angle.

It can be changed very slightly and it

works really well.

So you sort of see how many shots

we've got there.

I'm loving that.

Now, what I want you to do is

I want you to bring your hands over.

We've done that a couple of times with

the flowers.

Now, I wanted to see what she would

do naturally because she's done it well, not

knowing exactly what I normally want.

Normally this pose done incorrectly is like this,

where we get two amputations.

In other words, from this angle, we don't

really see any hand.

This is sort of being foreshortened.

It comes out of nowhere.

It's being squished and hidden by this arm.

Now, what I prefer to do with this

kind of a pose, I prefer this over

this.

So if you're gonna have an amputation, at

least only have one.

And again, where the problem lies with this

kind of a photograph is where you do

not see any breathing space above the chin

and the top of the elbows.

So what we do is we lean towards

the camera.

And again, you get them to say, guys,

just look at my hands, turn your faces

outwards.

Beautiful.

So now we see more of what's going

on, especially important if you are a shorter

photographer, this is an important one.

Here's the cool thing.

You can do one where they're just looking

diagonally into each other.

Then you can do one where the bride's

sort of looking off.

Then you can get her basically back in

and then his face is a little bit

out.

And then you could turn on a bit

of an angle, but you sort of see

how cool that would be for another shot

there as well.

But again, that hand in this particular camera

angle looks a lot better than amputating both

hands like this.

So remember, you're going to have an amputation,

at least only have one.

Some people do this and that's OK where

you stretch it out sort of properly like

this.

And that's OK.

But again, I would rather one hand over

the other.

This hand can work, but I'd also want

to sort of just turn the hand a

little bit so I can see a little

bit of the ring.

Also, when you're photographing, how cool would it

be to shoot with a shallower depth of

field where Dylan, turn your face to the

left, mate.

Tilt your face to the left.

Gorgeous.

She can grab the back of the head

like this.

Chin up a little bit and turn your

lips right into him.

Good.

So now we've got this hand just like

this.

Beautiful.

By the way, if the groom is balding,

this is a great shot to do because

we can cover up the bald spot.

But this one is great because we can

actually focus on the ring and her out

of focus, focus on her and then the

ring out of focus.

Remember too, by the way, guys, that if

you have the bride's eyes out of focus,

personally, I believe the common denominator that works

a lot is when she's out of focus,

bring her eyes down.

Same for the groom for that matter.

Okay, so remember that.

All right, check it out.

So of course, we've got some really nice

foundation poses.

Now, what else can we do?

Where else can we start?

Well, what about maybe the groom hugging the

bride from behind, which we somewhat did earlier,

but I want to expand on it.

So what I want you to do, mate,

is I want you to say, Dylan, turn

this way and just give her a hug

from behind with your face on this side,

your hands on this hand, and then turn

this way.

And then point your toe towards the camera,

Lisa, bend the knee, shift the hip back

a little bit, bring your legs a little

bit closer towards her, mate.

That's it.

And then now, you sort of see how

the bride's a little bit too close to

the camera.

I feel like we need to get Dylan

a couple steps closer.

There we go.

Good.

So let's come back.

Always remember, posing, don't look at it up

close.

It's almost like going to a movie theater

at IMAX and you're just looking around the

screen, you can't see everything.

Just stand back a little bit and you

might be able to see more.

So right now, that's a good foundation pose,

right?

They look good on the lower part of

their bodies.

I think that dress is just pulling a

little bit on your toe there.

Just, that's it, perfect.

Now, I can see from this camera angle,

your hands are popping out of nowhere, so

just get rid of those.

Beautiful, good.

So there's a great foundation pose to work

from, okay?

So there's, that's where we can start.

But what else can we do here?

Well, there's so many things.

First of all, we can get him to

turn his face.

Bring your lips right on her temple.

That's it.

On her forehead, so just make it easier

for him.

Drop your chin there, Dylan, on the forehead.

Beautiful, love that.

I want you to, Lisa, tilt this way.

Chin up a little bit, give her a

kiss on the cheek.

That's it.

Now, be careful of this pose, because some

people will get the nose right in the

eyeball.

Let's just do that on purpose.

Yeah, that's not gonna work.

Turn your body this way, so that camera

sees what just happened.

Yeah, you don't want the nose in the

eyeball.

All right, I'm sure that her eye smells

awesome, but.

And there's, and that's pretty much what I

do too.

So when we, when I get my couples

in a shot, I'll say some obscure crap

like that, and they'll just start laughing because

it's just silly.

All right, so from there, we've got basically

him interacting with her, but that's just the

face, right?

Now, also what we can do is she

can just look into her shoulder.

This looks really weird.

She's gonna feel like she's going cross-eyed,

but I can't see that awkwardness.

Now, I wanna bring his chin up a

little bit, and then turn his face a

bit to his right.

There we go.

So we take that nose off the eye.

Chin up a little bit there, mate.

That's it, beautiful.

Looking into each other's, into the shoulder there.

Gorgeous.

Now, I want, Lisa, you look into this

camera.

Beautiful, nice.

That's gorgeous.

Chin up a little bit now.

Throwing your head back a little bit.

Gorgeous.

And you sort of see how many shots

we can have, and we haven't really changed

any part of the hands or the body.

It actually works really well.

Now, what else can we do here with

the lower parts of the body, with the

hugging from behind shot?

Well, let's look at it.

If, let's say, for example, this was a

plus-size bride, or maybe she had thicker

arms and wanted to soften them, I would

not do this.

I would do this, and bring this elbow

back a little bit.

Beautiful.

I would put the groom's hand above her

like this, and I would probably crop in

this particular angle, but how beautiful is this

crop right here?

I would always crop just either above the

bust or below the bust.

It's just a waste of a curve if

you don't do that.

So this is really pretty.

Or another really cool thing we can do

is this.

We grab her right hand.

I call this the dirty dancing pose.

So here's where we get it wrong.

In fact, let me show it to you

right now.

So I want you to face the camera

perfectly there for me, Lisa, with your body

and your shoulders, and now bring your chest

on her back, just where you're popping out

your face.

Now, what I want you to do, Lisa,

try to grab his face with your hand.

It's weird, right?

It's uncomfortable.

So you guys, you must know that, again,

this dirty dancing pose, if you look at

the dirty dancing pose, so you'll know what

I'm talking about, this is awkward.

It feels clumsy.

Now, so basically what's happening is if you're

looking at a side bird's eye view, you've

got the chest of the groom and the

bride's back like this.

What you want is you don't want this.

You want this.

It's not exactly perpendicular.

It's a bit of an angle.

It's a bit of a V almost.

So what we do is, if you now

very subtly turn towards me, there we go.

Doesn't that feel nicer?

Yep.

Now this hand goes in the face.

This hand can say, it can go on

the waist, it can go anywhere, but this

hand on the wrist says, I love where

your hand is.

See, you wouldn't do that for a girl.

Like a girl wouldn't put the hand like

that, but this is, it's tender, but it's

strong, which is great for masculine energy.

Now, the problem is that this camera angle

is not the right way to go.

We're gonna be careful.

If we move too far this way, then

this elbow will come out of nowhere.

We need to see a little bit of

the length of the arm.

So we're gonna bring his hand back a

little bit.

Turn your body, it's like on a turntable

like this.

Good.

Now, point your right toe towards the camera,

bend the knee, slide the heel back.

Beautiful.

Gorgeous.

And now you're gonna turn your face into

his a little bit.

Now this hand could either be, again, it

could be something like this.

So we're not covering up the thinnest part

of the waist.

It's there.

Love the way they're interlocking there as well.

If that's a problem with the hands, you

simply just get rid of it.

No issue.

Or she could be holding a flower or

whatever, but I think that this is where

the moment is.

And I love the fact that his legs

bent.

Come a little bit closer with your body.

Always stand back, guys, when you're posing.

Always stand back.

Dylan, your right hand, bring it a bit

more this way.

There you go.

Good.

So you can see from our angle, you've

got that, you've basically got the length of

her bicep without being overt about it.

Her hand is coming a little bit into

the waist, but actually I don't mind it

in this stage because she's got a white

dress.

It's silhouetted against the dark shadow of her

hand.

I think that actually works.

Now in this position, he can kiss the

forehead.

He can kiss the temple.

Yep.

You can just tickle his chin.

Come nice and close.

That's it.

Just like that.

Beautiful.

Gorgeous.

Do you see how naturally she got into

the moment and her shoulder went up?

That's what I like as well is that

we're giving the couple's permission to be themselves.

Now I know that sounds like an anomaly

because we just pose that.

They don't do that naturally.

But again, you don't get hair and makeup

done.

You don't get your dress all done and

all fancied up so you look like you

do every other day of the week watching

Game of Thrones, sitting in front of the

TV.

We wanna bring out the best in them.

So build the pose, build it as in

build the architecture.

And then when you get the emotion out,

they break the perfection of that pose.

I think that's more than forgivable rather than

just, I don't know, hug and let's just

do what you want, stand there and I'll

hope for the best and just photograph anything

that I want.

All right, so there's a couple of ways

to do it.

I love this because if you were a

plus size, let's do this again.

If you were a plus size, I would

actually do this because that other pose would

not work.

This pose is awesome because it's hiding her

right arm.

These hands are softening her belly if she

was plus size.

Then we could turn a little bit this

way.

This hand's looking beautiful and soft.

Bring your legs together so they're touching there.

And then just lean back a little bit

there Lisa for me.

And that's it, beautiful.

Turn your face into his and then chin

forward there mate, chin up, that's it, good.

And then bring your chin up a bit

mate, so you're, there you go, just there,

gorgeous.

And now do you see how you're doing

this Lisa?

Just bring your hips back a little bit.

There you go.

Big difference, right?

So let's come back.

Always look at the pose afterwards.

This is a gorgeous pose, a great foundation

pose.

It's good for plus size, good for small

size.

And it really, really works.

If she was plus size, not only are

we hiding a little bit of the belly

with the hands, we can also bring the

flowers and their flowers will be your best

friend.

And that works as well.

Fantastic, I love that.

And this again, you could sort of play

around and fool around, kiss the forehead, look,

kiss the temple.

You could look off into the distance, you

can giggle into each other, all that kind

of stuff.

I love that.

Okay.

Now, can we, that's awesome.

Can we get, you are rich, man, look

at the biceps, what's going on?

It's very, very impressive.

I met her 10 years ago and look,

she had a gorgeous figure and all that

kind of stuff, but there was no cross

training back then.

Now, can we get the bride hugging the

groom from behind?

I think that the height difference of these

guys is probably pretty, pretty normal.

You know what I mean?

The groom's a little bit taller.

Can we get the groom hugging from behind,

standing up straight and make it look good?

Well, let's see.

So Dylan, turn and face that way.

Come back a few little shuffles.

So maybe a little more forward and then

turn this way a little bit.

And Lisa, come this way.

Without even thinking, I just want you to

hug him from behind.

Okay.

So the problem with this is that it

almost looks like a little kid trying to

jump up on dad's shoulders, right?

It looks a little bit weird.

So we need to make it less weird.

Now, how do we do that?

Well, first of all, you have to know

that this kind of shot, full body is

not gonna look incredibly romantic because there is

a bit of a disconnect.

It works better with the guy from behind,

hugging from behind because he can sort of

sink in.

And in other words, it's almost like spooning.

You know what I mean?

Like Melissa and I, like, I'm always the

big spoon.

I wanna be the little spoon.

Right now, she's trying to be the big

spoon, but she's smaller.

It's not gonna work.

But how do we make the small spoon

look better in this situation?

All right.

What we have to do is not have

the chest to the back.

He needs to just turn on a bit

of an angle.

You need to come around a little bit.

Now again, so we wanna hug from behind.

I want your hands in your pockets.

Or if, actually, we'll get to that in

a second.

So do you see how now, bring your

toe, knee.

Beautiful.

Let's have a look.

Yeah.

So do you see how that's beautiful?

Now, this is a great shot for a

plus size bride, because now we're softening her.

But even for a petite bride, like we

have with Lisa here, this is gorgeous, because

he looks really cool, looking really awesome.

Even if Dylan, if you were to turn

your body a touch more that way, so

you're a bit more side on.

Perfect.

And if you were to lean your body

forward a touch, stop, and then Lisa come

closer to me.

Beautiful.

That looks amazing.

Now, if we wanted a little bit more

emotion with the hands, because we want it

emotional.

First of all, close up like this looks

amazing, right?

This looks fantastic.

And we don't really get the sense that

he's putting his hand in his pocket.

But, if we wanted this hand, for something

to do, we simply do this.

Beautiful.

And now, we can do this.

See, she knows what's going on.

Chin up a little bit.

Watch the hand on there.

Stand up nice and tall and straight.

And then come, that's better.

So shoulders back, lean forward with your chest,

arch your back a little bit.

If you come closer to me, Lisa, a

little bit better.

Good.

And then you're turning there.

And that's nice.

Now, this hand, if you wanted to do

something with this hand, this would simply be

like this.

So it's almost like we're giving him something

to do that actually makes sense in that

particular position.

So for me, if I was to do

something like this, as in I wanted a

romantic shot, great.

If not, I would just get his hands

in his pockets as I did earlier.

Now this, what can we do here?

We can get her to kiss him on

the temple, on the cheek, or even, actually,

I know this sounds really weird.

Smile on his temple.

Isn't that beautiful?

See?

So straight away it makes him smile.

It actually makes me smile.

It's beautiful.

It's really, really cute.

So remember, don't waste your shot.

Don't waste your pose.

They're already there.

They're ready to rock.

Okay.

Let's relax.

How about we go back to back?

Because we're running out of concepts.

Because how many ways apart from sitting or

lying down or anything, how many ways can

you do this?

Well, we're gonna work this out.

So in this position, how do we make

this look good?

Well, I like the idea of this when

they're holding, actually, just relax your jacket there

for me, Dylan.

That's it.

Good.

All right.

Now Lisa, what I'd like you to do

is I want you to bring your toe

beyond his, but sort of back.

So now, there you go.

Perfect.

Love that.

Whole hands just there.

Slightly bend.

Oh, a bit of tricep action going on

there, Lisa.

Bit of definition.

I love that.

Just bend the elbow a little bit though.

That's it.

Intertwine a little bit.

I've got to feel this shot.

So intertwine a little bit more.

Let me see what that looks like.

So relax.

Unravel.

Do it like the, no, that doesn't look

right.

One second.

Yeah, there you go.

Beautiful.

Good.

Slightly bend that knee mate.

There you go.

So this is not going to be a

romantic shot.

It's not.

We're giving it some little glamor there with

the, or a little bit of warmth there

with the hands, but this could be another

idea of a traditional shot.

So let's say if you had a very

conservative couple and they didn't want to face

each other for some reason or something was

going on, but I think this looks beautiful.

What I love about it is there's a

sense of grace in there because of her

legs sort of going out there as well.

And this is where also they could crack

up laughing hysterically with their heads touching at

the back.

But isn't that cute?

So I love that.

This could work full length as it does,

and it could actually work close up as

well.

So that's a really beautiful thing.

So back to back is a bit of

a struggle.

There's not many variations that you can do

that actually work well.

So just know that it's a very high

degree of difficulty to get this looking romantic

without looking awkward and clumsy and all these

different things.