All language subtitles for Photo Forum talk Spanish version

Hello friends of Vodafone, how are you?

I hope everything goes as best as possible.

I am Víctor Lags and it is a

pleasure for me to be with all of

you today.

First of all, I want to thank the

entire Vodafone team for trusting me in this

incredible adventure.

As you can imagine, I am really happy.

And also, of course, I have to thank

everyone because without you this would not have

been possible.

So, first of all, I want to thank

you and ask you to be a little

patient with me.

Because, believe it or not, the best way

I find myself is always shooting, always photographing

and being in front of a camera or

being on a stage.

Believe me, it's always something new for me.

And it always makes my heart beat as

if we were at a wedding.

Well, in today's talk I would like to

talk about how to get or how to

capture incredible wedding images.

Or what is the same, how to turn

the normal into extraordinary.

I mean, how to get incredible images or

interesting images in places that apparently lack photographic

interest.

So, in the next few minutes I'm going

to talk a little bit about all that.

And I will also show you a video

in which you can see me working.

So that you can see a little bit

of the before and after.

So that this way, as you can see

that I do not explain myself very well,

thanks to photography I will be able to

do it better.

Of course, before we start talking about how

to get incredible wedding images or very interesting,

we should first talk about who we are

as photographers.

What is our project as a photographer?

I mean, if now, for example, our partner

or our family or whatever, or we want

to do a personal project.

And before we get ready, for example, to

start that job, what kind of photographer are

you?

I mean, do you know what time you

would choose, for example, to take those photos?

I mean, would you go out at dawn

to do the report, for example, of your

partner or personal project?

Or would you go at sunset?

Or maybe at noon?

Or maybe in the afternoon?

I mean, what I want to get at

is that it is super important to be

honest with ourselves as photographers.

And all that and all the elements or

the project that we have as a photographer,

transfer it or extrapolate it to what is

the world of weddings.

In short, the moment we are the same

photographer when we do a personal project and

we are the same photographer when we do

a wedding or an assignment of this type,

a pre-wedding, post-wedding or whatever, is

when things will start to work.

And for that we will have to understand

what kind of light, the light in which

we find ourselves most comfortable, what kind of

elements we usually use for our photography to

stand out, or even, not even talking about

standing out, but how we find ourselves comfortable

with ourselves.

What elements we love to photograph, for whatever

reason.

For example, in my case, I love geometry,

as you have already seen many times.

And also, if you photograph your partner, what

kind of body language are you using in

all your images?

And finally, what concept do you want to

convey?

What is the meaning of the image that

you are transmitting or that you are going

to photograph?

In my personal case, I like that my

images are not finished.

I mean, I love that the viewer, when

you are seeing one of my images, you

have several points of view.

Or you think that something is happening and

another viewer may think something else.

I mean, they are open to interpretation.

And that is what I am trying to

look for in each of the images that

I am making.

You see that I am already talking about

several super important terms.

One is light, the other is geometry, and

the other is body language.

You see that these three points are really

the skeleton of my entire photography.

And I am already talking about photography.

I am not yet talking about wedding photography.

But those three elements, light, geometry, and body

language, I always try to transfer them to

what is, for example, wedding photography.

If we talk about light, which is the

first point where I should start, and the

engine of all photography, or of my photography,

and of all photography too, of course, I

must tell you that the light with which

I feel comfortable is always a hard light,

or a super interesting light.

What I want to get at is that

thanks to that hard light, that powerful light,

that interesting light, I can be twice as

direct, I can be much more dramatic, and

I can be more abstract.

I mean, thanks to the hard light, I

can enhance areas of my images, or, for

example, hide parts.

And that will greatly facilitate me to play

with a multitude of aspects and get results

as you are seeing, really interesting.

Let's say that thanks to the light, everything

comes out.

And I always start all my workshops talking

about light.

I know that many of you will think,

fuck, but I already know how to expose

the light, I already know how to check

it.

But have you stopped to think for a

second?

What light is yours?

What is the favorite of all of you?

That is the starting point.

I also want to talk about geometry.

And geometry is something that is super important

in all my images.

And let's say it in a very simple

way, it's like I'm always trying to find

geometric lines in all my images.

When I talk about geometric lines, they can

be circles, or they can be squares, or

they can be triangles.

I mean, all those little things attract me

enormously and I'm always looking for them like

crazy.

A triangle of light, a circle, a rectangle,

any of those elements will help me or

I will rely on them to get the

type of photography that I'm looking for.

I have already told you about circles and

I would like to introduce you, for example,

to this image that you are seeing now

to explain to you a little bit how

this idea came about and how I finally

executed it.

Think that we are talking about a circle

that was painted on the wall, as it

is something strange.

Maybe we didn't finish it, or I didn't

finish it, for example, to understand why the

farm or the restaurant, in this case, had

a circle around here.

I thought about how to play with the

couple and how to try to scratch something.

Of course, when I start working with a

couple, don't think that from an idea or

a concept, for example, a circle, a brilliant

idea comes out and I already get a

very good photo.

No, it's about building the image a little

bit.

You see that little by little I started

placing separated sticks, out of the circle, I

started playing with them and soon I understood

that maybe the strength could be focusing the

couples in the center, separating them, I mean,

a perspective to play in which the girlfriend

was closer to me to gain a little

volume and place the girlfriend in the background.

In short, play as you are seeing, in

a kind of fan game in which the

girlfriend should be placed here and the boyfriend

should be placed there.

And what I wanted to achieve was that

both seemed to be part of the same

being.

The boyfriend coming out of the girl and

the girl coming out of the boyfriend.

Of course, think that, as I am telling

you, geometric lines help me enormously, they are

part of my project as a photographer and,

of course, of weddings.

But I also wanted to introduce something that

is really important.

Like many of my images are super complex

and I like to play with complexity, in

many cases I want to be as simple

as possible and as minimal as possible.

And in the case that many of the

times when I start making a portrait or

something similar, something I always tend to do

is always look for clean backgrounds, neutral backgrounds

that help me highlight the subject.

For example, I put this one that you

are seeing now, in which you can see

how the boys apparently seem to be climbing

two ramps that form a part of a

cloud, which is a triangle.

But notice how the background is perfectly clean.

But I would like to show you what

was the location before I shot this.

You see that the image that I am

showing you now, it looks like Erika, and

it was taken the day before the wedding.

There is no wedding that if we do

not know the location, or we do not

know the place where they are going to

get married, or the restaurant, or whatever, that

the day before, the day before the wedding,

we visit it.

It is not to know what kind of

light there will be, because, as you well

know, there may be a sunny day today,

and tomorrow it may be a cloudy day,

for example.

But it is to know a little how

the space is, what is the perspective with

the human being, and calculate little things so

that on the day of the wedding there

will be room to experiment and go a

little crazy.

But we are going to have a script,

for example, established.

And as I told you, the day before

we were photographing, well, we were checking a

little and Erika, when she was taking notes,

right at the tip that you are seeing,

it was then when I thought, of course,

the moment I am photographing Erika here, it

is as if I were photographing a postcard,

in which you can see the mountains, you

can see the river.

Of course, that is not the project that

I have as a photographer.

I mean, there is nothing wrong if you

love to photograph, for example, or have left,

in this case, the river with the mountains.

But notice that in my case it is

just the opposite.

I mean, I wanted to clean everything and

from there it came that I would crouch

to the maximum to play with the deformity

that the 35mm was going to give me.

I mean, instead of shooting at eye level,

I crouched to the maximum and I already

forced the lines to look like they were,

well, they had a triangular shape or a

cloud shape.

And I just asked the couple to walk

from the center to the outside.

That was the result, well, that was the

final result that we finally achieved.

You see how, in this way, I have

already been introducing you a little bit how

everything goes, what geometric lines are, how we

are working on them and how we are

always looking for them at all times.

And now it is time to talk about

body language, of course.

And, of course, the truth is that photographers

play with a certain disadvantage compared to videographers,

since for a videographer, in quotes, it may

seem simple to tell the couple, well, tell

her that you love her or tell him

that you love him or whatever.

Of course, we can, for example, listen to

it, but in a photograph there is no

audio that we can listen to, so we

are going to have to start playing with

body language to tell the viewer, to introduce

the viewer who sees our photos what is

happening there, right?

And I always say that there are several

points of body language that are really important.

One is always the lips, another is the

eyes, and the most important one, and the

one I would like to stop today for

a few more minutes, are these little things,

the hands.

I mean, the hands have incredible information, and

depending on how we play with them, they

will give a meaning or another.

I mean, think that if you had seen

me, for example, start the video with my

hands in my pockets, like this, shrunk, what

I would have transmitted was that I was

nervous or I didn't know, even though I'm

super nervous.

But, I mean, or if you were shaking,

or if you saw a closed fist, I

mean, a hand, depending on how we play

with them, will transmit a meaning or another.

So, where I'm going to enhance or I'm

going to put all the energy possible is

to worry about what meaning or what concepts

I want to transmit with the hands.

That's why you're always going to see in

my photos some hands doing this, doing the

other, and if I ask a couple to

get together, to end up kissing, I'm always

going to ask them to play with their

hands, that she supports her hands on his

chest, that she flips over his neck, on

his shoulder, sorry, and that they do whatever

is necessary to create that connection between them.

Do you understand me?

I mean, notice that, I mean, I would

like to stop in the image, because you're

seeing now, it's a very complex image, in

which, as you're seeing, it's a triangle of

light, in which an incredible shadow is projected,

and notice that in the corner of everything

we have two hands almost touching.

I mean, notice that, for me, that's the

meaning, I mean, like a couple that is

about to reach each other, that's what I

wanted to transmit.

But notice that in this photo it sums

up a little bit of what I'm looking

for.

First, light.

Notice that, well, I chose at six in

the afternoon, in the middle of summer, when

the sun was burning, but not enough, like

a light, perhaps, of midday, but the powerful

light.

And also notice how, thanks to the light,

I tried to find a geometric line.

I mean, think that I, a few minutes

ago, I had talked about, well, about all

that, that if there is no geometric shape

or something so evident close to me, I'm

going to try to find it.

How?

Well, in this case, thanks to the light,

I have a virtual triangle.

But notice, going back again, for example, to

the hands, how important it is.

And notice that, I mean, I already told

you when I started that I like the

viewer to imagine things of what is, for

example, happening.

And what I like to transmit is that

my images have more of a concept.

I mean, that the viewer participates and imagines

things that are, for example, happening.

You can imagine one thing and the other

can imagine another.

So, the viewer can imagine that the couple

you are seeing now loved each other, they

were about to get together, something was happening

to them, that's why they weren't touching.

And, in short, you see how the hands

have a huge power.

And that's what I wanted to tell you

today.

So, those were the three points I wanted

to focus on to understand or explain what

kind of photographer I am.

And depending on the type of photographer I

am, I will try to transmit it to

all the wedding photography I do.

At the moment, as I told you at

the beginning, be honest with yourselves and the

photography you are, for example, doing to your

partner or to your pet and then you

transfer that to the wedding photography, I assure

you that everything will start to change.

Of course, if you make mistakes like me,

when I started to photograph weddings back in

2010, my biggest mistake was to think who

are the three most popular photographers in my

city.

They were A, B and C.

And the first thing I did was to

think well, let's start copying them.

That was all the truth, right?

Instead of thinking who am I as a

photographer?

What have I done in the previous years?

If I had been or worked for nine

years as a photojournalist, why didn't I extrapolate

all that, all the knowledge of those years

of press to the world of weddings?

Of course, the easiest thing for me was

what did those A, B and C photographers

do?

What did they do?

They did that kind of images.

Then I thought, well, if they are good

at doing this kind of images, I'm going

to do them.

If I have to do this to be

a wedding photographer, I'm going to do it

anyway without stopping to think for a second

what kind of photographer he was, what kind

of concepts he wanted to transmit, what kind

of light he wanted to transmit.

Did I like the composition or the geometric

lines?

I mean, who was he as a photographer?

I didn't even think about that.

I chose the easy way and I assure

you that I'm almost going down the drain.

That is very, very important and perhaps it

is the starting point that all photographers should

think about so that later, when we get

to the wedding photography, it is the essential

one.

So nothing else, friends.

That's all for now.

I hope you liked it.

I hope I have done my best.

You see that, well, the truth is that

taking pictures is better than being in front

of the camera and also taking into account

that having a camera in front of me

without having people who blink or laugh or

whistle, it's not the same.

So, well, I thank you all for your

patience and see you very, very soon.

I hope sooner rather than later.

I hope that again, we can toast again.

I hope that soon we can hug each

other and that we can have unforgettable moments

in congresses like the F wedding.

So nothing else, friends.

Until next time and be good.