Original subtitles

Hey everyone, I hope this finds you well.

So this is take two.

So funny story, I recorded this entire video

and then realized I recorded the wrong screen.

It was literally just a video recording of

myself talking into the camera.

It's like a selfie for 15 minutes.

Oh yeah, anyway, so this is take two.

I hope you guys are doing great.

I really, you know, it sounds repetitive.

I know it sounds really repetitive since I've

already recorded this, but no, I honestly do

hope you guys are doing well.

I hope I hope everything.

I hope you guys are all healthy.

You know, it's middle of March or getting,

you know, three weeks into March Springs.

I know where I am.

Spring's definitely happening.

I know if you're in the States, it's,

you know, it's probably a lot warmer.

You know, when I see, you know, I

see a light at the end of the

tunnel with all of this, you know, I,

it might be a small light, um, but

I definitely see it.

I see, you know, couples seem to be

more excited in the emails.

There's not as much questioning, um, you know,

it's just, it's a different feeling, I guess,

you know, it's, we're not definitely out of

the woods yet.

But I think, you know, as we move

forward, it's going to get better.

I think with vaccines and, you know, that

type of thing, I'm hoping travel restrictions lift

a little and we can all kind of

get back to kind of a normal.

Um, it's been a year.

It's been, you know, it's funny how that

first, like the March last year, I remember

it felt, I remember it was like, what

day is it?

Is it March 294th?

You know, that month just felt like forever.

It felt like eternity.

It felt like it never ended.

But now that we're here in March 2021,

I'm like, wow, that year went by so

fast.

Um, it flew by for me, at least.

I don't know if you guys, if you

feel the same way, but, you know, from

the time it started to where we are

at today, as I record this, like it

just, it was like that.

It felt like, um, crazy ups and downs,

you know, a lot of downs, um, but

a lot of ups.

I think, you know, I get asked, I

got asked a lot of the time, you

know, how's it been?

And it's, you know, I, it's, it's been

okay.

You know, I, I've been doing this for

a long time.

So, you know, 17 years of 18 years

of shooting weddings, not really having a summer

off.

It wasn't bad.

I got to ski a lot this year,

which is fantastic.

You know, a lot of time, you know,

outside, a lot of times skiing, a lot

of time with the family, you know, so

it's been, I can think of worse things.

Right.

So anyway, that's, that's my, that's my speech.

Uh, so Parker and Addie, it, uh, you

know, I feel like, you know, I got

a lot of good feedback from you guys.

You know, it's actually one of the reasons

why I did the, the extended set version

of this shoot, uh, was I was asked,

I got a, you know, a few comments

and people through messages asking if they could

see everything.

And I remember replying to someone that I

felt surprised at that, you know, he wanted

to see that because I almost felt like

it was, you know, like having someone over

and slowing, showing them a slideshow of your

vacation photos.

I felt surprised that people wanted to see

so much of me, you know, I am

super introverted.

I am not a big fan of myself

on camera.

So when I, you know, when I was

getting messages of people saying, oh yeah, I

don't know.

We want to see like a full session.

I was like, really like an hour of

Gabe.

Um, but you know, you guys liked it.

I, I, you know, I've always said at

the end of all my talks, you know,

all these videos, you know, whatever you guys

want from me, I'm going to do my

best to provide that for you.

Um, so I hope it helped.

I feel like, you know, there's a lot

of positive feedback.

Um, and yeah, I'll try to do more

of those throughout this year, you know, when

I can bring a videographer and, you know,

I'll have my GoPro for a lot of

the stuff, but I think it is nice

to have, uh, you know, a different angle,

someone from the side or just a different,

different footage than just what's on top of

the camera.

So anyway, um, you know, I'm, I'm glad

you guys like it.

And again, thanks for the suggestion.

And like I said, I'll do what I

can.

Um, so I'm going to edit, uh, I'm

going to edit a few of Parker and

Addie's photos.

I think I have five edits here.

Um, you know, I always talk about how

my edits are really simple.

They are quite basic.

You know, I don't ever want, I, I

like editing.

I just don't like spending time on editing.

So I really try to focus in on

capturing what is close to the final product

as I can in Roth.

Okay.

So, you know, you'll see, well, you know

what, let's just get right to it.

Let's just start.

Um, so we're going to start with this

image right here.

Okay.

So, you know, sun was just setting lights

coming down, you know, the palm of the

hand, this area is really what's in focus

for me is what's really most important.

Um, so we're going to go with Rome

and then black steepen and shadow screen.

Okay.

And then just adjust the color temperature and

shadows.

And then I know in one of the

videos I had talked about how I've been

starting to slide the texture slider down.

Um, so I usually am around that negative

40 ish, um, depending, uh, don't use the

clarity slider and don't go all the way

unless, unless you're looking for like glamor, you

know, 80s glamor.

I'm personally not.

So I don't really touch the clarity slider.

And again, the texture slider around that negative

40, just to soften the skin a little.

Okay.

And then I'll use the brush tool again,

negative contrast, positive shadow, and just pop in

just a bit of light into here.

And I finish it off with the finisher.

Okay.

And then it defaults to a hundred.

I usually try to bring it down to

around 50.

I find it gives a nice smooth matte

look, but not too muddy.

Um, so yeah, that's really, that would be

the edit.

So again, after and before.

In the video on this section, I had

them in these trees.

I love the texture of these, these leaves

give to a photo.

Um, in the video, I don't know if

you remember, um, I had told him this

was, this is a space, you know, explore

this space right here.

And then that's her right shoulder.

There is like where you're, that's your concentration.

Eyes there, touch there, everything there.

Okay.

So again, this was shot 50, 1.2.

And then, so let's get into that.

So Rome, black steepen, shadow screen, adjust color

temperature.

I'm just going to start with getting some

light into here.

So the temperature contrast, bring the texture back

just to smooth everything out a little.

One more pop of light.

We'll finish with, you guessed it, the finisher.

Just drop that down just a little.

And yeah, so again, after before.

So we'll move on to here.

So this was what I noticed when we

were up here is the fall colors for

sure.

It's really what I wanted to emphasize.

I knew this photo would be extremely warm

with the, you know, the warm sun, all

the warm leaves, you know, putting them in

here.

Uh, I knew how this would edit would

be warm.

It's going to be a warm image.

So again, let's go Rome, black steepen, shadow

screen.

We're going to pop a bit of light

into here.

Adjust the color temperature.

Contrast.

Bring up the shadow, drop the texture down

just again, just to soften everything.

And then we'll add the finisher.

So you can see before, after.

So we'll move to closer to the end

of the session.

The walking, the sun was setting for this.

What I did is I upped my, so

I took my camera and I kind of

did this.

I tilted it down just because I knew

that I wanted to get rid of this

distraction.

So in behind here, there is homes, there's

sky.

And I thought, well, if I could just

get the light right in between them here,

um, this is what I'm looking for.

So again, just tilting the camera down, bringing

them to the top of the frame.

And then knowing that this is what I

was editing for.

Okay.

So again, Rome, black steepen, shadow screen.

Let's brush in some light.

Just a little more.

Texture down.

And then apply the finisher.

One thing you'll notice about the finisher is

if there's a lot of dark in the

photo, the finisher can at times make the

photo look quite muddy.

So I tend to use less of it

on darker photos.

Just be aware of it.

It's a personal preference.

Again, you can adjust this however you like.

But in darker images where I have a

lot of black, I tend to bring this

down just a little lower than I would

on something that's, you know, perhaps a little

brighter.

One more pop of light in here.

Yeah.

So again, after, before.

To finish it off.

So this was close to the end.

Again, in kind of from here, they had

walked and we ended up at this position.

Just having, having your couples just communicate.

I know in the video I talk about

this quite a bit is the communication through

touch.

It is, I don't like talking.

Talking to me can ruin moments.

It kind of distracts the couple from what

it is I'm after.

I want connection.

So if I can get my couples to

communicate through touch, it becomes visually a much

more connected than just them standing there having

a conversation.

I will often ask my couples to close

their eyes as well.

Just because, you know, the reasoning for that

is, you know, A, it might be more

comfortable for them, but B visually, or just

for them visually, it looks at times it

can look more intimate, but if their eyes

are closed, they're not really focusing, you know,

they're not looking at their hands and focusing

on what they're doing.

They are purely doing it via feeling, right?

Which is what we want.

We want to capture feelings.

So if you can take away the sense

of sight for them and really tell them

to communicate through feel and through touch, it

visually comes out much more feeling than if

they're busy staring at their fingers of what

they're doing.

So this was, you know, Parker, you know,

tickling Natty's hand.

And yeah, I know the focus for me

is here, you know, shooting it at 1

.4 wide open.

You can still get what's going on.

You can still see who they are and

what's happening here.

But again, it's not the focus of the

photo.

This is the focal point.

So again, let's go Rome and Black Stephen.

We're not going to do shadows green on

this.

What I find is sometimes in these areas,

see, it can almost turn the skin quite

strange when it's in really dark areas.

OK, so we're not going to go shadows

green.

I'm just going to leave that alone and

then we will adjust color temperature.

I'm just going to throw in a pop

of light into here, bring the texture down.

And one of the things for me looking

at this photo, you know, again, I didn't

catch it while I was shooting it, but

removing, you know, cropping here was so the

eyes aren't here.

So I will re-crop this now and

just removing Parker's, just the top of his

eye, just so then you're not, the viewer

isn't distracted by that.

And again, these are really subconscious, you know,

things.

But for me, I feel like it just

changes the way someone looks at the photo,

right?

It just, you know, it really makes you

focus now on here, as opposed to here

and then to the eye.

OK, it's almost like, where is he looking?

What's he looking at?

You know, so again, just a small tiny

crop.

I try to do most of that stuff

in camera so I don't have to crop

afterwards.

But again, it's, you know, in situations like

this, you know, no one's perfect.

You know, you're not always going to capture

it because there's, you know, you're too busy

looking at light in the moment, that type

of thing.

So again, you know, just be aware when

you're editing.

Maybe you missed it in camera.

So catch it afterwards.

Again, let's just pop a little bit of

light in here and then we'll add the

finisher.

Back down a little.

And again, so finished before.

So, guys, I hope that helps a little.

My editing has always been super simple.

I've always, you know, talked about trying to

get as much as you can in camera

and really practicing that, you know, really, you

know, for me, under exposing by a stop

or two if I know where the light

is and I know what I want afterwards

and post because it allows you to then

get into Photoshop or Lightroom and really edit,

you know, a full picture in 15, 20

seconds, right?

Like it's super quick.

It's, you know, you're not spending huge amounts

of time on something that, you know, that

really, to me, you're looking more for the

connection and the couple, right?

So again, guys, I hope that helps.

Sorry, my focusing.

If I seem a little distracted right in

the last like 30 seconds, my focusing on

my camera is going crazy.

I'm not sure why because I'm not moving.

So maybe I need to get a Sony.

My Canon's not keeping up.

Not really moving.

Anyway, again, I, sorry, I got super distracted.

The editing to me is not, it's not

a huge importance.

It's not, you know, I want my photos

to have a very consistent look.

However, I don't really want to put a

lot of emphasis on it.

So if I can try to get as

much as I can possible in the raw

file when I shoot, then I can get

into Photoshop.

I know some of you, most of you

use Lightroom.

I'm still old school.

But I can not take a lot of

time.

I can edit a full picture, as you

can see, in, you know, 30 seconds.

You know, 15 seconds if it's really close,

right?

So I hope that helps a little, guys.

You know, thanks so much for being here.

I, as always, I want, you know, comments.

I want you guys to tell me what

you're looking for.

I know that's kind of how the, you

know, the extended version of Gabe ended up

on here was, you know, just some of

you reaching out and in the comments or

in a message saying, hey, I'd love to

see the whole session.

You know, I'm really here for what you

guys need from me.

You know, I can put these videos out

and put what I think you want out.

But, you know, at the end of the

day, this is for you.

You know, this is me creating this content

for you guys and what, you know, will

help you guys.

So, you know, don't be shy.

Put it out there.

And if I can, I will do it.

I'll accommodate it.

I will do everything I can to give

you guys what you want.

So I hope that helps.

I hope you guys are all healthy and

well and, you know, looking forward to a

good year.

And, you know, there's a light at the

end of your tunnel.

And again, I appreciate you guys being here.

Like I said, it's been a year.

So it's been, it's been a crazy year,

but it's been, it's been a good year.

You know, it's, it's been a shitty year.

But, but overall, it's been, you know, for

me, at least everyone's been healthy.

And, you know, it is, it is what

it is.

And we move forward.

So thanks so much, guys.

I appreciate everything.

And I look forward to talking to you

guys soon.

Okay.

All right.

Take care, guys.

Bye.