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Today we are going to be talking about

my tips and tricks for how to shoot

a perfect, beautiful, amazing bridal portrait that you

are excited to share with everyone.

Now, a wedding day is dedicated to both

the bride and the groom, but as history

has shown, especially in my business that we're

going almost this 10 years, there's a heavier

emphasis placed on capturing more photos of the

bride.

Now, I definitely balance it between the bride

and the groom, but I have a little

bit more fun with the bride.

Now, this could be perhaps because of tradition

or culture or just a penchant on my

end, but either way, we know that this

has to be done on a wedding day,

so the key is for you to become

very comfortable so that then you can give

the directions that you need to give to

your clients to make them just as comfortable

in front of the camera.

So what you're going to see in today's

lesson is a pattern of how I shoot

a bride.

You will see a ton of footage that

feels seemingly like the same thing, but please

know that it is being presented with intentionality.

I believe that the more you see something

and the more you hear something, it becomes

ingrained in the back of your mind so

that when you go out and do a

shoot, you will then start following the same

pattern, a pattern that you have created for

yourself.

Now, the strength of this shoot from an

educational perspective is that you are getting a

front row seat to how I work with

a bride over and over and over again.

What I'm going to do is I'm going

to show you that video and we're going

to get into it a little bit later.

Looking down at the bouquet?

Lovely.

Look over your right shoulder.

Can I have your eyes here?

Beautiful.

Good.

Can I have you take the bouquet in

your left hand?

Good.

And then we're going to take your, um,

there's two parts to the veil, the shorter

end and the longer end.

Can you get the shorter end with your,

gorgeous.

That's exactly it.

So what I want you to do is

I want to create movement so that it

doesn't feel like it's fake.

Oh, and then the wind comes.

This is so beautiful.

I can't wait for you to do that.

I can't even deal.

Okay.

Good.

So what we're going to do is we're

just going to give you that motion for

you to do that.

So your hand will start down and then

you're going to come and you're going to

get it.

You're going to drag it on in and

you're going to be looking at me.

Yes.

But you're going to have, you're going to

drag it on in looking down and then

glance up at me.

And we are going to look back at

the veil.

Beautiful.

Have your hands and we're going to start

that motion.

Gorgeous.

Beautiful.

Beautiful.

I'm going to have you do that just

one more time.

You can relax your hands to the side.

Beautiful.

Can you get your hair on your right

shoulder and just wrap it behind your shoulder

so I can get a nice clean shot.

That's beautiful.

Good.

Beautiful.

You're going to take a deep breath for

me.

Good.

Gorgeous.

Beautiful.

Wrap it around you.

Beautiful.

Eyes here.

Good.

I want you to do the same thing.

Now we're going to relax the smile this

time.

Good.

So one thing that I'm noticing as I'm

shooting backlight that's like really important is I

want to make sure that I'm putting some

sort of structure in front of the sun.

In front of the center point nucleus of

the sun.

So I'm going to be right now using

this tree.

So I'm going to position my body so

that the sun is the main center of

the sun is covered by the tree but

I get this gorgeous light behind her.

If the tree was not blocking the sun

what would happen was I would get too

much light into my camera.

So now I'm just getting the afterglow of

the sun and not necessarily the light the

sun directly pointing into my camera.

So now what I'm going to have you

do is I'm going to have you do

this is just too pretty with this wind.

Beautiful.

We're going to let your hair go.

Absolutely stunning.

Look down at your bouquet.

Beautiful.

Now bring that.

We're going to do that little movement.

You're going to bring your hand.

Gorgeous.

You know it.

Beautiful.

I mean everything was so perfect.

I'm going to make a couple small adjustments.

Everything's everything's right.

You just go with it.

I'll shoot it.

No pressure.

Beautiful.

Beautiful.

OK.

So I'm going to have you turn around.

So Jack I'm going to get a detail

shot of this veil and then do the

dress out from the bottom and then we'll

kind of judge this and I'll just shoot

it kind of from the.

So Erica can you put the bouquet in

your right hand.

Gorgeous.

So I'm going to see if I can

crop out those clamps.

OK.

Gorgeous.

Gorgeous.

Just like turn over your right shoulder.

There you go.

No.

Yeah.

You're right.

Good.

So I'm going to try to do right

now is just get a little bit of

motion and movement as the bride is walking

so that the veil and the dress are

trailing her from behind.

So I'm going to have you start with

your right foot and you're going to walk

at a cadence of one two three and

I'll be talking you through it but not

too fast not too slow.

I'll be talking through it with you the

entire time.

So starting in three two one one two

three one two three.

Gorgeous.

Thank you.

So you're going to relax the bouquet and

you're going to look down at the bouquet.

Wow.

Wow.

Wow.

Wow.

So my settings right now are at 2

.0 250 ISO and one thousandth of a

second.

I'm shooting specifically at a 2.0 because

I could still get a lot of beautiful

details but kind of blur out the foliage

in the background.

We get some nice beautiful bokeh at this

and we have some nice natural wind going

that I'm just loving.

My focal point is on the bride's right

eye.

Chin towards me.

Good.

That was bisecting your forehead which would make

it a disaster in Photoshop later.

I'd have to comb through each little hair.

Hair in Photoshop is no easy feat.

It's like my nemesis.

I know I don't like doing it either.

It's hard.

It's good.

Good.

So now we're going to have you just

kind of roll back again take a deep

breath.

JD.

I'm sorry.

Could I get you to give me a

little bit of wind with that board.

I really like the way that it looked.

What do you mean roll back?

This is you.

So you're just going to roll it on

back that way.

Good.

Great.

Okay.

So I'm going to have you give me

a little bit of wind from this side.

Now the thing is when I talk to

my brides and I say roll back, Erica

just asked me what did you mean by

that specifically and I think it's a really

good point because when I say roll back

I don't want them to turn.

I don't want them to turn.

I want them actually to open up their

shoulders and roll back.

What we're doing is creating angles within the

body.

That's now it's picking up.

Good.

Look down at the bouquet.

Beautiful.

Now I'm going to step in and I'm

going to have to change, I'm going to

have to compensate for the light a little

bit.

Now I'm still having this tree behind blocking

the sun from behind the bride but I

want to make sure that the light is

still coming through but not the nucleus of

the sun.

I'm going to switch.

I'm going to go to aperture 1.2.

I'm going to compensate using my shutter speed

and I'm going to change that to two

thousandth of a second.

Eyes down and here at my hand.

Lower your eyes a little bit more.

Lower your chin a little bit more.

Take a deep breath with your shoulders.

Beautiful.

Can you close your eyes for one second?

Take a deep breath.

Beautiful.

Bring your eyes here.

Relax your head again.

Look down.

Beautiful.

Now when I ask you to bring your

eyes towards me, I actually want you to

bring your chin towards me.

So looking down in three, two, one.

Look up at me.

Heck yes.

What I'm going to do right now is

I'm going to have the bride walk towards

me, create a little bit of movement but

I'm going to coach her on the type

of cadence that I want.

So I'm going to have you hold your

bouquet but because the veil is on this

side, hold your bouquet in your right hand.

Beautiful.

Now you can lift up.

Yes.

Gorgeous.

Beautiful.

Now I'm going to have you walk at

a cadence of one, two, three and as

you're doing that, don't feel any pressure to

keep eye contact with me the whole time.

So we're looking down.

Relax the bouquet down, pointing the head of

the bouquet down, resting it along your side.

Beautiful.

Can you tilt your wrist out toward me?

I'm sorry.

The front of your wrist.

There you go.

Good.

Good.

Take a deep breath.

We're smiling, keeping the face nice and light.

Gorgeous.

In three, two, one, walking.

Looking down.

Looking to the side.

Beautiful.

Chin up.

Gorgeous.

Look off to the side a little bit

more.

Gorgeous.

Light smile.

Looking off that way.

Eyes here.

Heck yeah.

Heck yes.

Okay.

We're good.

Bless you.

Great.

All right.

So as the sun is dropping, I'm still

shooting in the same area, but I am

going to use some like natural fill light.

This is a foam board that I picked

up from a photo store for like $20.

My settings are going to be roughly the

same.

I'm at F 2.0, but instead of

being at a thousandth of a second, I'm

at 800th of a second, still at 250

ISO.

Why don't you take a deep breath?

Now what I want to make sure that

you're doing is keeping your fingers connected very

much like a Disney princess.

So your middle and ring finger are connected.

The other two are just laying down next

to it.

Beautiful.

Gorgeous.

Beautiful.

Look down at the bouquet.

Look over your left shoulder a tiny bit.

Good.

Now what I want you to do is

can you flip the direction of the bouquet,

hold it with your left hand, scoot it

back down in your lap a little bit,

a little bit more, a little bit more.

That's good.

Now, what I'm going to have you do

is I'm going to have you use your

right hand and you're going to bring your

right hand to your hair and you're just

going to look up as if you're just

sitting by a creek.

Now, I don't want you bringing the hand

up to your face.

I want it to bring your hand just

here, like light, ear and lower, but don't

pawn the hair.

I just kind of want you to adjust

the hair like that.

So you're going to be bringing your hands

in.

I'll walk you through it.

Things that work, I'll let you know.

Things that don't work, I'll let you know

as well.

So in three, oh, looking down like that,

darling, two and one.

Hand down.

Have you do that one more time.

But I want you to look up as

if I had just called you.

Like you're sitting by a creek and you're

just fixing your hair and I say, Erica,

oh, what?

That type of thing.

Okay.

Here we go.

In three, two and one, hands to hair,

eyes here.

I just called you.

Gorgeous.

Eyes here.

Chin towards me.

Oh, and that wind is coming.

Gorgeous.

I'm going to step in.

Eyes here.

Chin here.

Gorgeous.

Chin down.

Take a deep breath.

Relax the shoulders.

Gorgeous.

Eyes here.

Atta girl.

Can you look down at your bouquet?

Beautiful.

So my focal point will always be on

the bride's eye.

In this particular situation, since her left eye

is closest to me, that's where my focal

point is.

Even though I'm kind of shooting with the

intention of focusing on the bouquet, I really

just want to make sure her eye is

in focus.

So when I call for her, I'll already

be ready.

Erica, can you look here at me?

Chin towards me.

Beautiful.

Now, in this case, when her head was

down, I was just focusing on her left

eye.

But since her eye became symmetrical to me,

I shifted my camera and I put my

focal point on her right eye.

Eyes down.

Beautiful.

Take a deep breath.

Look down at the bouquet.

Relax that right shoulder.

Atta girl.

Good.

Now what I want you to do is

take a deep breath.

And when I call for you, I actually

want you to look back at me as

if you haven't seen an old friend in

a while.

That's a little ambiguous, but don't worry.

I'll make it work.

In 3, 2, 1.

Erica, look back.

Good.

Good.

So I'm going to get a little bit

of a clamp, but I might have to

just Photoshop that out later.

And then we'll just deal with it.

Look back.

Look back towards the river.

In 3, 2, 1.

Erica, hey.

Hello.

Good.

Good.

Good.

Okay, great.

Tilt your head this way.

Atta girl.

Good.

So I'm going to have you tilt your

head this way, and then I'm going to

call for you to bring your chin towards

me.

Okay.

Beautiful.

Now bring your chin towards me.

Ooh, got this little wind action going on.

Beautiful.

Give me your side.

Then what I want you to do with

your left hand is with the veil, you're

going to bring it up and just kind

of hold it a little bit.

Yes.

But I don't want it to be like...

Yeah, like...

Yes, that's beautiful.

That's good.

Beautiful.

Now as you bring it across, I don't

want you to come with it.

I want you to always keep your face

out towards me.

Yes, that's exactly where I want you to

end.

So bring it back, looking to the side.

And I'm ready for you in 3, 2,

1.

Eyes down towards your...

Yes.

Eyes here.

Now, and don't scrunch with the forehead.

Eyes down at your left hand.

Beautiful.

Chin up towards me.

That a girl.

Looking down that way.

Good.

I was commissioned to shoot the new lookbook

for My Olivia Nelson.

My Olivia Nelson is run by a very

dear and wonderful creative in Los Angeles by

the name of Jacqueline.

Now she does hair accessories, but then she

decided to diversify her portfolio by making wedding

veils.

So what she had arranged was for me

to work with two different brides.

Now each bride was going to be wearing

a total of six different veils.

So with every veil, what I did was

I created a pattern and then instructed them

to follow that pattern in order for me

to get the desired result.

So let's dig in to what you will

see throughout the shoot and make sure that

you follow the following tips and tricks to

shooting a bridal portrait.

First up, give specific instructions.

So what's going on now is I'm moving

my position because the light is shifting.

And because the light is shifting and we're

getting later in the afternoon and we're shooting

in a really dense tree shaded area, I'm

going to try to use a whiteboard to

compensate for light.

I don't like to use traditional reflectors because

they kind of have like an iridescent quality.

So I want to make sure that the

whiteboard that we're using...

I got this whiteboard for like $20 or

$25 at a photography shop here in Orange

County and they cut it out for me.

And I'm just going to have J.D.

hold it for me.

I might not use something like this on

a wedding day, but if shooting bridal portraits,

per se, like art, fantastic.

When you have time and have an assistant

to do this, this would be great.

So I want to make sure that I'm

not getting too much of the green tones

and a lot of like the dark imagery.

So I think this should be pretty good.

So J.D.'s just going to be using

the whiteboard to be reflecting the sun that's

coming through the trees.

It's going to be diffusing the light for

me exactly the way that I want it.

So she is backlit, but not so strongly

by the sun.

Looking towards the river.

If that's a river, I don't know.

The bouquet is down in your right hand.

And you're going to have the veil and

you're just going to kind of be judging

the veil.

Kind of just looking down.

That's so beautiful.

I love everything that's going on, Erica.

Beautiful.

I want you to do the same thing.

I'm just shifting my light.

Gorgeous.

Looking down at your hand.

Bring the hand closer to your body.

Good.

I'm going to shift in a little bit.

Ah, this is so pretty.

Beautiful.

So what I'll sometimes do is I'll use

my hand to block the sun and then

crop my hand from the frame.

If I can't use a tree to block

out when I'm shooting backlit.

So all I'm basically doing is I'm shifting

and recomposing and then I just find a

little spot that I know will definitely work

for me.

Now shift your shoulders more towards me, Erica.

Now bring the veil in front of you.

Drop the bouquet down.

Beautiful.

But in front a little bit.

But not center of the legs.

Yeah, there you go.

Looking towards the river.

I know it's not a river.

Sorry, whatever.

The creek.

Eyes here.

Everything you're doing is so fantastical right now.

Hang out.

Woohoo!

This.

Good, good, good.

Good, good, good.

Beautiful.

Eyes down.

Beautiful.

So I was just asked why I don't

use a lens hood when I shoot and

I choose to use my hand to block

out the sun.

And part of the reason is just aesthetics.

I know that probably sounds ridiculous.

But when I'm shooting and I have a

bag, I don't like to switch my, I

like to switch my lenses rather quickly.

And they just become a little bit more

clunky in the bag.

And I actually just like the mobility.

Like instead of having to screw on a

hood and screw off a hood, just having

my hand in front of it is fine.

It's worked for me.

I haven't really used a hood in years

with the exception of the 70-200 during

ceremony shots.

But for my fixed lenses, when I'm shooting

in a pinch, I always just use my

hand.

Erica, can I have you look over your

left shoulder?

There we go.

Actually, just look down at the bouquet so

I'm getting more profile.

More profile.

More profile.

Turn your abdomen towards the whiteboard.

There we go.

Oh, no.

A little less so I don't see the

clips.

Gorgeous.

Turn back around.

And then when I call for you, I

want you to do it one more time.

In 3, 2, 1.

Put your bouquet to the side.

Looking down at the bouquet.

Hang on.

There it is.

There it is.

Heck yes.

Thank you.

So, I arrived early with J.D. to

kind of scope the property.

But I understood that from when we got

here, which was about 1.30 in the

afternoon, and it's January, I knew that the

light was going to shift so dramatically.

It's about 3.15 right about now, and

the light has shifted.

But we kind of anticipated, when you look

at the sun in the sky and you

can see that it's going to be falling

towards the sunset line, we determined that we

wanted to save this particular location for the

3, 3.30 time mark.

And this is what we're getting.

We're getting the sun coming in through these

gorgeous gnarled trees.

There are no leaves on it.

But part of the good thing about it

is that it's kind of reflecting this nice,

warm orange light versus spring light.

If we were shooting this in the spring,

all of this would be covered in green,

and we'd get a lot of green undertones.

What we're getting just truly now is the

sun through the trees reflecting nice, beautiful light

from the orange and brown leaves around it.

So right now, can you just look towards

your right wrist?

Beautiful.

Gorgeous.

Bring the eyes here.

Chin here.

Beautiful.

Roll your left shoulder back.

Gorgeous.

I want to see a little bit of

your left wrist.

There you go.

Gorgeous.

Beautiful.

Beautiful.

Eyes down like that is fantastic.

Eyes down like that is fantastic.

Beautiful.

Eyes here.

Looking out towards the sound of the river.

Gorgeous.

Relaxing that right shoulder.

That a girl.

Beautiful.

Eyes here.

Chin here.

So what I want to make sure that

I'm doing is I'm shooting a horizontal photo

and a vertical photo.

So the vertical photo will get more of

like the dome-like features of this gnarled

tree.

And the horizontal photo will work really well

in getting a lot of negative space.

But I have to temper that negative space

with a lot of darkness on the right

side of my frame.

So we'll kind of work through that in

post.

Relax it.

Beautiful.

Right hand up on the bridge.

Gorgeous.

Fantastic.

Eyes down at the bouquet.

I'm going to shoot through these gnarled trees.

Kind of just create a little bit of

distraction in the foreground.

Beautiful.

Eyes here, Rebecca.

Chin here.

JD, can I borrow you for a second?

I just need you to hold a hand

real quick.

Now your assistant can actually see exactly where

the light is coming through in the lens.

Beautiful, Rebecca.

Stunning.

Can you look out towards the water?

Gorgeous.

Gorgeous.

Beautiful.

Eyes here.

Chin here.

Fantastic.

I'm going to come up a little.

Can you scoot your body in a little

bit?

Fantastic.

Fantastic.

So I'm going to be changing my aperture

from a 2.0 to a 1.2.

And part of the reason why I'm doing

that is I want to blur out these

kind of like wooden chairs behind the scene

because they're going to be distracting.

I can't even.

My settings right now are 1.2, 16

times per second, and 250 ISO.

Roll that left shoulder out towards me.

Beautiful.

Beautiful.

Take a deep breath.

Bring the shoulders on up.

Shake it out.

There you go.

Beautiful.

Now fall back into whatever your body naturally

falls into.

And if I have to amend, beautiful.

Eyes towards the water.

I'm going to step in a little closer.

And as I get in closer, my scene's

getting darker, so I need to compensate.

I'm going to drop it down to 1250th

of a second.

This beautiful light behind her.

Beautiful.

Can I have your eyes here?

Chin here.

Relax your shoulders.

Atta girl.

That's it.

Can you look down at your bouquet?

I'm going to shoot nice and tight now.

So now you can just kind of relax.

I'm just getting the upper.

Chin towards me.

Good.

I'm going to fix a couple things.

There we go.

Do you want me to leave that little

bit of rim on the top of her

head?

Chin down a tiny bit.

Jay, that's fantastical.

I mean just fantastical.

Right over here.

Beautiful.

Rebecca, chin towards me.

There we go.

I'm only asking that for your hair.

I don't want it to compete with your

eyes.

That's gorgeous.

This is beautiful.

Slight smile, Rebecca.

Eyes here.

JD, peel back a tiny bit.

Thank you.

JD, peel back that right hand.

Peel it back if possible.

I'm still getting haze.

It's my fault.

You stay there with Rebecca.

I'll hang out here.

Good.

Open your right shoulder more towards me.

There you go.

I'm just worried about the clamps.

That's great, Rebecca.

I just want to get one shot of

you in the bouquet.

Just turn towards me.

And then, yes, that.

Now I want you to just hold the

bouquet here.

Yeah, that's perfect.

Yes, absolutely.

Tip the bouquet up towards your belly.

That's it.

Great.

I want to take a second to point

out a couple things in the footage that

was just shown.

Firstly, what you will see is you saw

JD, my husband, and second shooter hold a

large white board.

Or what it was actually was two medium

-sized boards that he held up together.

Now, I normally do not use white reflectors

of this nature, but I want to take

a step back.

And in previous lessons, I have spoken about

how to find natural reflectors when shooting in

difficult light.

But in this particular scenario, I knew that

the location I was going to was not

going to provide the level of natural reflectors

that I needed.

So because of this, I brought these boards,

as I mentioned in the video.

These are actually foam boards that I bought

for about $25 from a photo store.

We brought these with us to compensate for

the light, and I'm very thankful that we

did.

Now, this kind of begs the question of,

do we bring them on a wedding day?

Well, in really tough situations, I might.

But in the course of 9 or 10

years, I have not done so.

I have the latitude and the luxury when

shooting these types of styled shoots to bring

that.

But generally, as a rule of thumb, I

don't.

But if you are experimenting with a shoot

on your own for creativity's sake, what I

want you to do is spend a little

bit of extra something.

Get something that reflects light in a natural

way that you prefer, and then leverage it

that way.

Secondly, what I want to point out was

that Erica, the beautiful red-headed bride, was

extremely stiff at the beginning of the shoot.

You see this so evidently in the way

that she walked, in the way that she

smiled, or the non-smile that she was

giving me.

And so in my best efforts, what I

had to do was kind of give her

an idea.

And you saw me do this about two

or three times in what we just saw.

I had to give her a story in

a way to actually break her out from

being so overthinking and present in that moment.

It was, I want you to look over

the shoulder as if someone's calling your name.

That's different than giving an instruction of, I

want you to look over your shoulder.

Because she was so stiff, it would turn

like this.

But in my hopes, I said, look over

your shoulder as if somebody's calling your name.

And that kind of shifted her face, shifted

her shoulders ever so slightly.

And I would take that over not getting

that at all.

I also said, can you walk towards me

as if you're running down the aisle or

running away from the church?

Now, is that kind of like a ridiculous

story and sentiment?

Perhaps.

But if I can relax her a tiny

little bit, these are the things that I

would definitely do.

Now, sometimes asking for a bride to be

part of the story will help you.

So those are the two things that I

wanted to point out.

And what we're going to move in now

is a few tips and tricks.

I want you to pay attention to various

photo variations.

So tip number four is to shoot for

options.

I'm going to walk through a list of

the types of bridal portraits I take.

I'm going to walk you through what it

looks like for me during each session.

What I want to do is a full

-body horizontal shot.

And then I want a half-body horizontal

shot.

Then what I want is a head shot,

or otherwise known as a beauty shot, horizontal.

I want a full-body vertical shot.

Let me make sure that I'm keeping up

with the keynote.

A full-body vertical shot and then a

half-body vertical shot.

And then I want a head shot, which

is otherwise known as the beauty shot, so

I'm staying in line with my list.

And then I want a full-body shot

from behind.

Specifically, if a bride is wearing a long

dress, that photo is definitely something her mama

would want, as well as magazine editors.

So tip number five, I want you to

plan in advance.

You have seen how I have changed locations

a few times, but one location was such

a dramatic change that I would not have

known to make that change had I not

arrived earlier.

So we got to the venue, and I

noticed where the sun was in the sky,

and I said, okay, the sun is falling

in this direction, so by the time the

sun falls in about 45 minutes, I know

that it's going to be hitting me in

the shrub-like area in a way that

I'm going to find very favorable.

I would not have known how to do

that had I not been there in advance.

What I want you to do is tip

six, is to work every angle.

It's important to learn how to shoot in

the same location in a variation of ways

because a lot of times on a wedding

day, we're not afforded the luxury of working

in a big field of wheat, or in

a forest, or in an urban area.

Sometimes we have a small little area to

shoot.

So what I want to do is I

want to show you how I challenge myself

to get 10 different poses in a really

small area.

The area was so small that we were

working within this shoot, it was about five

feet by five feet.

But given that, I was able to shoot

the brides differently in that same section to

make it look that there's a lot more

diversity to the portfolio, and I'm going to

show you how that happens in the shoot

now.

So I'm going to be staying in the

same location, but I'm going to actually be

moving one of the brides into a slightly

different location.

So we're going to be about five feet

from where we originally were because the light

is still so good in this particular location.

However, I don't want to shoot two brides

in the same location, so I'm going to

show you how in just a matter of

five feet, I can shoot a photo entirely

differently.

We're going to do that right about now.

So five feet, two different looks, and probably

10 to 15 different poses.

And the same thing could be emulated on

a wedding day.

So here we go.

Beautiful.

Relax your shoulders.

Look down at the bouquet.

So what I'm trying to do is we

have these really weird seating arrangements behind the

bride, so I'm going to be shooting this

at a 1.2. She has a veil

covering both her eyes, so while it's important

that her eye is in focus, it's not

completely paramount to the quality of the photo

because we're going to be focusing on the

veil, shooting at a 1.2, these beautiful

rhinestones in the front.

It's going to look fantastic.

Can you look out towards the water with

your chin?

Atta girl.

Good.

And can I have your eyes here?

Nice.

And then look down at your bouquet.

Good.

I'm going to ultimately have you walk towards

me, but right now I'm just going to

get a couple standard shots, and what I'm

going to try to do is there's some

trees and foliage.

I'm going to put that in the foreground.

I'm going to totally blur them out, but

it'll still kind of add a voyeuristic appeal

to the photograph.

Beautiful.

Look down towards your bouquet.

Lift the chin a tiny bit.

There it is.

Now what I want you to do, I

think we're okay right now.

I'll pin it before you start walking.

Eyes here.

I want to make sure that's good.

Atta girl.

Now what I want you to do is

I want you to walk towards me, taking

as much time as you need.

Beautiful.

Can you look out towards the right real

quick?

I'm sorry, your other right.

Good.

Yeah, sorry.

My fault.

Good.

Heck yeah.

When the model was down by the water,

I was shooting at a 1.25 hundredths

of a second and 250 ISO, but as

she walked up from the dark parts of

the water, she walked into this beautiful light,

so I had to make sure that I

was compensating.

Because I shoot manually, we shifted from five

hundredths to a second to eight hundredths of

a second, so keeping that in the back

of your mind will save so much time

in post-processing and really having to like

lift different levels and lighting in raw after.

Sometimes photographers will change their aperture if they

want to manipulate light.

I prefer to kind of set my aperture

and just kind of play around with the

shutter speed in order to get the kind

of light that I want.

So I started here at one thousandth of

a second.

I'm shooting at a 2.0 two hundredths

of a second, and I'm going to have

to change that because that's much too dark.

So I'm going to drop down to five

hundredths of a second, and that's exactly where

I want it.

Beautiful.

Beautiful.

I'm going to change to 640.

640th of a second.

Now I'm pulled quite far away from the

bride, but I'm going to have to make

sure that I'm shooting this both ways.

I'm making sure that there's a tree blocking

the sun.

One thing to take into consideration is what

I'm exposing for.

My number one priority is exposing for the

skin.

I want to make sure that the skin

looks beautiful and flawless.

Secondly, I'm exposing for the dress.

I want to make sure that I'm not

losing any information in it.

And then afterwards, ancillary far off is for

the background.

It's a personal choice and preference.

But for me, skin, dress, and then the

background, and in that order.

Can I have you look?

I actually like how the veil is over

your wrist.

Can you look down at your wrist?

Beautiful.

Good.

This is really pretty, Rebecca.

Can you look over where Jacqueline is?

Yes.

Gorgeous.

Can you shift your right hip towards me

a little?

Your right.

Bring it towards me.

There you go.

I was like, I think it's a...

Now, with your right hand, can you get

your veil and just kind of play with

it a little bit in the front?

Leaving your left hand draped the way it

was.

Beautiful.

Now, I want your hand down.

And then for the count of three, you'll

bring it up and you'll just kind of

play with it.

There's not going to be a right or

wrong.

So, have it all the way down.

Yeah, more that way.

I just have to be careful for the

clamps in the back.

But right now, it's perfect.

In three.

In two.

In one.

Beautiful.

Looking down at your hand.

That's it.

That's stunning.

Can you look over where Jacqueline is?

Gorgeous.

That.

Thank you.

Beautiful.

One more angle and then I think we're

going to be good.

Well, actually, this light is not very good.

So, part of why I'm not going to

shoot this is because she's so strongly backlit.

And there's nothing in this area that's going

to reflect light back on her face.

Unless I wanted to use an artificial reflector

or some sort of speed light and I

don't want to do that.

So, instead of trying to make this fight

to make it work, I'm simply going to

step towards her.

But I'm going to step towards her in

a way that there's something going to be

on the floor that's going to push light

back onto Rebecca's face.

Yes.

Come on, mama.

Beautiful.

Oh, that's so beautiful.

Shift that left shoulder towards me.

Beautiful.

So, I need you.

I'll just place you.

And then scoop it down because we're losing

light.

Beautiful.

Can you look towards the whiteboard?

I know.

With your chin.

There we go.

And then with your right hand, kind of

touch the bottom of your hair.

Hang out there.

Beautiful.

For photographers who are vertically challenged like myself,

on a good day I stand at about

5'4".

I try to wear heels sometimes on a

shoot.

But when worst case comes to worst case,

I will stand on things that I find.

So, it could be a log, it could

be a rock, or it could be a

bench.

I'm going to kind of show you the

dimensions in which I stand on a bench

shooting down on a bride.

Now, if she was standing with her groom,

I would have both of them with their

eyes facing each other.

But in this case, I'm really focusing on

her headpiece.

So, I want to be standing a little

bit higher shooting down on her.

Can you shift your head towards me this

way?

Eyes down.

One step out that way.

And then one step in towards me.

There it is.

Right there.

Beautiful.

Looking down at your hand.

There we go.

Other hand here.

And like that.

Beautiful.

Shift your face here.

Beautiful.

Hang out.

Beautiful.

Take a deep breath.

Relax your shoulders.

Eyes here.

Chin down.

Eyes on the floor.

Now to the right of you.

Take a deep breath.

Relax.

Great.

Okay.

We're good.

Good.

Beautiful.

Looking down at your right hand.

Beautiful.

And then you can just relax your right

hand against your body.

Look down towards the water.

Good.

We'll get her at the bouquet.

Thank you.

That's good.

That's great, Rebecca.

Can you look down at the bouquet?

Beautiful.

I'm just getting a whiteboard photo, kind of

like a cork foam board.

I'm going to turn it towards the model.

I don't need anybody to hold it towards

me.

But I'm not going to lean it directly

against the body.

I'm going to put it at a slight

angle so that the light, because of where

it is in the sky, will pop down

and up at her.

Not exactly campfire lighting, but something a little

closer to that than not.

So, Rebecca, can you get this bang?

And you can kind of just tuck it

back.

Yeah.

That's beautiful.

That's beautiful.

And then with your right hand, just kind

of come up.

Yes.

Can you look down at your bouquet?

Beautiful.

Slight smile.

Relax.

Take a deep breath.

Relax your shoulders.

Good.

Step a little closer.

I feel like it's great.

Darling.

Okay, Rebecca, now we're cooking with fire.

Here we go.

Looking down at the bouquet.

Relaxing the arms a little bit.

Atta girl.

Erica, can I have you judge her veil?

Yes.

Or her dress, too.

Beautiful.

Beautiful.

Can you grab the side of the veil?

Yes.

Bring it closer to you.

I have the peanut gallery behind me, and

they approve.

No pressure right now.

Relax that front shoulder.

Relax the front shoulder.

You guys, I love it.

What are you guys talking about?

Eyes here.

Eyes here.

Gorgeous.

Chin here.

Roll that shoulder back.

Hell yes.

Looking down at your left hand.

Gorgeous.

Shift your body so that I see less

of the clamp.

I know it's hard.

That's nice.

That's nice.

That is good.

Beautiful.

Eyes down.

Relax the shoulders.

Take a deep breath.

Beautiful.

Eyes here.

Good.

Good.

Can you look down so I can get

more of a side profile so I can

get the back of it, too?

Can you look down the hill to your

right?

I'm sorry.

Can you look over your left shoulder?

Erica, too?

Your left shoulder.

Actually, your right shoulder.

I liked it right better.

There we go.

Great.

We're working with the model.

We had actually set this up right when

we got here, but the light was so

strong that I made an editorial decision to

say, I'm going to keep on pushing it

back, pushing it back, pushing it back.

We'll probably be ending the shoot with this

shot, and I'm so glad we did because

the light is just gorgeous.

I don't have to fight the sun.

We have sun reflecting off the trees in

the sky, but just pouring this nice, gorgeous

light, evenly lit.

I don't have to fight for it.

It should be smooth sailing from here.

Right now, since you don't have a bouquet,

we're going to cruise on through this.

I'm at a 2.5, 200th of a

second, 250 ISO.

Gorgeous.

Rebecca, you just doing your thing right now.

I want to give you full freedom to

move.

I'll start telling you what's working, what could

be improved on, but this right here is

gorgeous.

Beautiful.

Jacqueline wanted a few photos, a good, honest,

hearty laugh, which is difficult.

I know.

Can you look?

I know, I know.

It's my job.

That's really cute.

Good, good.

Now, what I want you to do is

look towards the water.

Gorgeous.

Beautiful.

Bouquet, bouquet, bouquet, bouquet.

Beautiful.

Good.

Beautiful.

Adjust your hair and kind of give a

light laugh towards the water.

Adjust your hair.

Beautiful.

Beautiful.

Eyes here.

Kind of laugh.

That's it.

Thank you, darling.

Face towards me.

There it is.

Great.

Bouquet.

Nailed it.

Nailed it.

I know, right?

Beautiful.

Good.

Now, what I want you to do is

drop the bouquet a little bit low.

Shift the weight from side to side as

you kind of go through the poses and

moves.

Beautiful.

I love it.

Relax the shoulders.

Take a deep breath.

Slight smile.

Beautiful.

Eyes here.

Chin here.

Nice.

Kind of like a ha, ha, ha.

Good.

Oh, Jacqueline's going to love you for that.

Looking over towards the water.

Eyes here.

Chin here.

Good.

Now, what I want to do is I

want to get a side photo.

So, I'm going to need her clamps.

Turn this way.

This is the side.

Look over your right shoulder, love.

Beautiful.

Now, keep your face there, but turn your

eyes towards the bouquet.

Beautiful.

Relax that front right shoulder.

Relax it.

There it is.

Gorgeous.

Roll that right shoulder back and then chin

towards me.

Atta girl.

That's beautiful.

That's gorgeous.

I love what's going on here.

Good.

I would not be surprised if at this

point in the presentation you are so sick

of hearing my voice because it is my

voice and I am sick of hearing it.

I wouldn't also be surprised if you heard

my voice in your dreams tonight, but the

thing that I still maintain is that if

you hear something over and over again, it

will recalibrate your approach.

Now, I want you to note something as

well is I gave virtually the same instructions

to two different brides, but it impacted them

differently.

Now, my approach will be the same as

I shoot not just these two brides, but

any brides, but what I have to do

is I have to be intuitive enough to

read their body language and then recraft how

I speak to them to get the desired

result.

So I hope that you saw those distinctions

so when you work with two different brides

in the future, you will be able to

emulate the thing yourself.

One thing I want to point out is

that you might have noticed as I did

that Erica started off the session like uptight

and a little bit tense and then as

the shoot progressed, what happened?

She relaxed a little bit more.

She bloomed a little bit more.

So I wanted to make sure that I

paid specific attention on how I spoke to

her again and again throughout the shoot and

then I saw her blossom and then it

made me happy.

So the last tip that I want to

get into is to make editorial decisions and

by this, I'm trying to tell you and

remind you to think like an editor.

We spoke about this in a previous lesson

when I interviewed the photo editor of The

Knot Magazine, Rebecca Crumley.

If you are shooting in an area that

is not going to give you the desired

results, don't shoot there.

Have enough fortitude and wherewithal to turn to

your team and say, now is not the

time.

You saw this happen when they asked me

to photograph the veils and what may or

may not have appeared or been heard on

the camera was they really wanted it at

a specific time but I kept on saying,

no, it's not time.

No, it's not time.

No, it's not time because I knew if

I had to fight so hard for the

photo, it was not going to reflect the

thing that I really wanted.

So what I want you to say is

say something.

Say anything to defend your decision and if

they push forward with it, that's fine but

they're making that decision.

I think it's easy to feel intimidated by

not being able to articulate or do the

things that somebody had asked you to do

like, oh, shoot this right now but I

want to encourage you to find your voice.

That's one of the things that I wish

somebody had told me earlier that it is

okay to have an opinion and it is

okay to have your voice shine and on

that note, what I want you to do

is I want you to defend your professional

opinion because you know, as a lead photographer,

that you're the only person there on that

shoot who could deliver what they need and

lastly, this will help you provide a photo

that will allow you to give a photo

that you're very proud of and overall will

benefit everybody's portfolio as a result.

We want them to love our work.

So in light of that, I want to

head into our homework now.

First assignment is I want you to make

a list of bridal portraits.

I have given you a wonderful start.

Now what I would love for you to

do is to add poses that push your

brand forward, that kind of lend itself to

your style of photography.

Then what I want you to do is

I want you to create a pattern.

It is not enough to simply have the

list.

What I want you to do is I

want you to memorize the list.

I want you to hold that list.

I want you to go in saying that

every pattern will be the same.

The results will be different, but the pattern

will be the same.

Then what I want you to do is

I want you to practice your pattern.

If this is happening on a wedding date,

fantastic, but what I would hope you would

do is to create the pattern inside and

outside of being paid commission shoots.

Now you can learn how to pose a

body if she's wearing a wedding dress or

not.

So if you have a friend and you're

out to brunch and it's a Sunday and

you guys are waiting for the table, take

her into the side alley and say can

I just work with you with my iPhone?

So take a great photo for her Instagram

account, but what you're actually doing is teaching

yourself how to talk to her and ease

her into that.

Lastly, what I want you to do is

I want you to arrive early and plan

your photo map.

Know what the light is going to do.

Find your natural reflectors.

Be so confident that when somebody asks you

to shoot a photo that you don't think

is the right time, you can defend it

professionally.

I look forward to see how you shoot

your bridal tips and how, excuse me, I

look forward to see you shoot bridal portraits

and use these tips to strengthen your portfolio.

Thanks guys.