All language subtitles for 6. Hands

Okay, so now I wanna share with you

a really cool concept that will help you

remember how to pose hands when they're off

the body.

So let's talk about it.

When your hands are above your waist, let's

do that.

When they're above the waist, traditionally, hands down

actually look better.

When they're below the waist, hands look better

like this.

Now, when it's above the waist, it can

work both ways, but when it's down, it

looks weird, watch this.

If I bring my hand below my waist,

again, if I'm a girl, this looks weird.

Like right back in, it looks weird.

So up is more elegant.

The minute it goes above the waist, it's

just pure gravity.

Let the hand just go down.

That being said, that can work when you're

actually holding a veil or having some fun

with the flowers and things like that.

So remember, hands below the waist for a

female form, just basically soften, up, and above

the waist, down.

Okay, beautiful.

Now, let's look at this camera.

So Lisa, really important to know as well,

we talked about bringing the jaw out if

we have a problem with the double chin.

We talked about shoulders, back and the neck

and things like that.

What we wanna do now is talk about

eyes.

What I want you to do is in

that camera, I want you to lock into

a stare.

So no, I don't want you to look

pretty, I want you to look almost psycho

in about 10 seconds, okay?

So you're locking into a stare.

Yep, just lock into a stare.

Okay, so it's almost like you're seeing nothing.

It's just, you've got that bride who's waiting

for you to change your lens, doing whatever

you do.

Now, if you wanna break the monotony of

those eyes, then I've been saying for years,

I want a hint of a squint, just

a little one.

What happens is a little tension underneath the

eyes just adds a little bit of mystery

to the eyes and it actually really works.

Another way of doing this is actually closing

your eyes.

Now, on the count of three, I want

you to open them, but I want you

to open them up very slowly and then

lock into a stare, okay?

So, ready, one, two, three.

All right, so we basically take it on

the way up, one, two, three, click, and

then she can go back into a stare

for all I care, no problem at all.

Also, whenever you're actually photographing someone in the

sun, so let's say, for example, the light

that's on us right now, that was just

too bright and you're squinting, you can't look

at it, it's a bit tough, then I'll

get you to close your eyes and then

I'll go one, two, three, click, and then

you can squint all you want, okay?

As far as lips are concerned, lips are

an important one because a lot of girls

these days just watch Instagram and everyone's pouting

and everyone looks like those little duck fish

lips, whatever the hell's going on there, it

just looks a little bit weird.

Don't you know that your lips look weird

when you do that?

I'd rather you have small lips than just

do the little, do an obvious pout, like,

doesn't work, okay?

So what we wanna do is, now, Lisa's

got beautiful full lips, but if she wants

to make them look fuller still, a way

of doing it without pouting is I might

say to Lisa, I simply just want you,

now you're breathing through your nose like everyone

does, I want you to breathe through your

mouth.

What happens is it reminds her to part

her lips, now be careful because some brides

will do this, like they're doing Lamaze breathing

or something like that, I have no idea

what that's all about, but breathing through the

mouth is just enough with a part in

the lips, we make the lips look fuller,

if the lighting's coming down from the top,

for example, then we get a little bit

of a shadow underneath the lips and it

emphasizes the lips still, and that's a great

way of making the lips look fuller.

Okay, fantastic.

So now what I wanna do is I

wanna talk about the idea of posing with

flowers because when you're photographing a wedding, you

are going to need to know how to

do that.

Now, a personal bias, let me just say

this with a warning and I mentioned it

under my breath just before, that posing flowers,

I have no problem with flowers, I think

they're pretty, they're great, but they're not really

that meaningful.

Like, why are you just holding the flowers

on a day?

Because it's traditional, great, fantastic, that's embellishment, great.

Once you get shots of the flowers with

the bride and especially with the groom, like

I said, I would rather you get some

more emotion out of those hands than hide

them with flowers.

But let me grab some flowers, just want

you to hold them there like that.

So what we wanna do is you'll normally

find there's a sweet spot with the flowers

and there might be some pins, for example,

there might be an ugly part of that

particular bouquet, so you gotta be careful with

that.

So you wanna work out the sweet spot

and let's assume that's a sweet spot.

Remember what we said about the hands on

the actual, so let's just cross your arms

again and then bend the wrist right in,

beautiful.

Now keep that hand exactly the way that

is, keep that hand, keep that hand, keep

that hand, beautiful.

And then that one, do the exact same

thing, perfect.

So the good thing is that if you

wanted to actually put the hands on top

of each other, you wanna actually get the

ring being visible and also a big mistake

is actually putting the flowers right here and

covering up the chest, covering up the curves,

not a great idea.

So what I want you to do now

is just bring it just below your bust

and then shoulders back and arms out.

What we wanna do is we wanna have

breathing space between here and here and we

want it just below the bust.

Now this will change if let's say you

are photographing a plus size bride, let's say

you do have, even the shoulders back, you've

still got those little pinches of skin over

the dress, this is where you can hide

a lot of cool things, all right?

Another way of holding flowers, again, if you

did have a problem area in this way

is cradle them like a baby.

So just do that for me on this

arm and then turn your body this way

and you can see how that would actually

work for a closeup as well.

Now, if you wanted to, you can bring

this a little bit closer, bring your chin

forward and then tilt your face a little

bit and then that could be a really,

really beautiful shot.

Now, yes, it could be cropped up a

little bit closer, this might look awkward because

that's gonna be an issue but it just

depends on what you're looking at, okay?

But flowers are a really cool thing if

it's done well and traditionally.

So let's now look at you full length.

As I hold them in front of you,

I'm gonna stand right here as if I'm

basically photographing you just to get a perspective

of what's going on.

So just stand at one little step this

way, bit more, bit more, there we go,

perfect.

It's actually really good, Lisa followed my direction

really well there.

Often if you say take a step, a

bride might take a big step.

So take a step to your right, okay?

So we don't want that.

So if you wanted some micro adjustments, so

if you can see how she's being framed

by the actual door, so stand right in

the middle of that area.

So let's say, see how she's slightly off

the center of that door in the background

there.

Now, of course, this is not really about

composition, this is really about posing.

But if I wanted her to take a

step, I might say, take a micro step

to your left, little one.

So there you go, perfect.

And what happens is you always hear that

little pitter patter and that's when you know

you're doing well.

Now, do you see how the flowers are

almost pointed towards the camera?

In fact, point the flowers more towards me.

Do you see how the perspective looks a

little bit weird?

Now, this could be a good shot, arguably,

if you were photographing maybe the flowers at

maybe 1.4, 1.2, and then you

had her eyes out of focus or something

like that.

So I'd only pose the flowers like that

if you wanted the body out of focus.

Traditionally, if you're photographing full length, that just

looks weird.

It's just coming out of nowhere and there's

about half a foot, or maybe almost a

foot between the flowers and her body.

So now I want you to bring the

stem down a little bit and bring it

a little bit lower, and then shoulders back.

Now, remember what we said about the formal

full length traditional pose?

She's standing flat footed.

She's got great shape, but basically we're just

seeing straight on either side.

So now what we do is let's go

back to our pose, turn your body on

a bit of an angle, point your left

toe towards me, slide the heel back in,

bend the knee, shift the butt away from

the camera, arms off the body, perfect.

Bring the elbows back a little bit and

tilt the flowers towards me a little bit,

and then bring them back into your waist

a little bit there.

And now bring this hand a little bit

out more.

Nope, it's the other way.

Perfect.

Do you see how now she's got a

gap between her arm and her body?

Bring that right elbow back.

So your other right, there you go.

But you see how now I've still got

the curvature of the bust and I've still

got the curvature of her butt there and

her waist.

Now, turn your body slightly towards that camera

so we get the actual similar result there.

So let's have a look.

Yeah, that's beautiful.

So shoulders right back and we've got that

beautiful shot there as well.

Fantastic.

Very, very important.

Okay.

Now with flowers, let's say for example, if

you're photographing with the groom and the flowers,

we're gonna show you how we do a

traditional full-length portrait with the flowers as

well.

Now, I wanna share something else with you.

If you hold the flowers with one hand

like this, what's happening from this perspective?

Well, we call that foreshortening, that the flowers

are coming out of her hand and out

of her elbow.

She's literally missing the length of her forearm.

We call that foreshortening.

So if I was to point towards this

camera, for example, you see how my whole

hand or my whole arm is actually fits

within a circle.

Now, that is gonna make everything look a

little bit weird.

I mean, my hand's coming out of my

shoulder, but my arm is actually this long.

So what you need to know about foreshortening

is that you don't necessarily wanna point a

body part towards the camera.

Perfect example, a bride sitting on the ground,

her feet are towards you, and then her

feet are just coming out of her hips.

It just looks weird.

So remember not to foreshorten any part of

the body.

Commonly, like I said, hands will be done

like that, flowers holding champagne and so on.

Now, let's go back again.

Let's go back holding the flowers in front

of you again.

Another important thing to remember is that when

you're holding flowers, do you see how her

arms are on a bit of an angle?

Just take one little micro step to your

left.

That's it, beautiful.

So now we're holding the flowers and there's

a bit of a triangle.

If she holds her hands up too straight,

give me a straight, basically bring your forearms

parallel to the ground.

That's it, a bit lower, lower, stop.

Now, Lisa looks ripped right now because she

does work out.

She's got a definition in her arms and

stuff like that, but that looks a bit

masculine, doesn't work.

So you never really wanna get straight angles

on arms.

You wanna break it.

Think of it, the more triangles and bends

that you create in a body, but basically

the better it's going to be.

So bring the hands right down, shoulders back,

and arms out a little bit, beautiful.

That's gonna really work for her.

And again, if we wanted to do that

with the traditional full length foundation pose, as

I call it, you would turn her body

a bit this way, and then you would

point her toe, you would bend her knee,

hips right back, and lean forward, beautiful.

And again, how far you go with that

particular pose, it really depends on the girl.

So slow down with what you're doing.

Just know that flowers, like I said, I

believe are unemotional.

Yes, they can be meaningful to whoever has

purchased them, but often they're just an embellishment

that we add that doesn't really mean much.

So right now, we're gonna continue on, and

we're gonna share some more ideas and simplify

posing for you.