Skip to main content

Making Adjustments - Audience Q&A

Lesson 26 from: Beauty + Fashion

Matthew Jordan Smith

Making Adjustments - Audience Q&A

Lesson 26 from: Beauty + Fashion

Matthew Jordan Smith

buy this class

$00

$00
Sale Ends Soon!

starting under

$13/month*

Unlock this classplus 2200+ more >

Lesson Info

26. Making Adjustments - Audience Q&A

Lesson Info

Making Adjustments - Audience Q&A

So our first shot is done with the color checker come up here for a second here, thank you. Now we have our coaches, her shot and I never want to see my models up without having a small conversation and talking about the day and I like to bring them over to my story board before the first shot and discuss it so that way they come up here ready and fresh having the images, the energy the ad to together so the storyboard is so important it helps you from beginning to end. It helps you and the crew stay focus it gives you a reason to shoot a story I love have the storyboard around me. I love having visuals around me if you can't sketch or draw, I have no way around you can sketch it out then brain tearsheets so come down for one second all ten will set up and I see a problem right away and then we have to adjust it so we were looking to do this one way, but we've are are very tall models and high heels. I think we need to go higher when our backdrop. So what changed that make a small adju...

stment and that happens all the time you'll set up and you're doing things on the malcolm's wants it you can say, okay, getting a small change really fast it's right now we'll go higher on our back drop some malls are five, nine, five, ten with four inch heels, so they're very tall now take a break, possibly where do you want to keep us in question? That would take not take questions while that happens or take a break either way, relax and take it easy. We have tons of questions for you. Good? Alexander asked instead of strobes, can you use continuous lights? And can you talk about the difference? Can I use continuous lights versus strobes for fashion? You can and when I first started office assistant, I work for ah topper name hero masa out of paris and here only use h m I lights, which are continuous lights continue slights don't flash, it stays on, but they're very powerful and an h in my life feels and looks like the sun if you see those big shot where you see images by, uh um herb ritts they did years ago on the beach, she has these gigantic big h m eyes. They're very powerful lights, but even those big h m eyes you're shooting at f four five six so it's a very different field, I can't shoot a f twenty two with big continuous lights, they're not that powerful as a stroll, so for the situation I want that I want make sure I have the leverage of using a s stop, like twenty two versus you get five, six now I love continuous light and I've done a lot of images with continuous light. Um, my first covers, my first three covers were shot with continuous light in my eye, a career I'd like to shoot boat, but I picked the light that's right for the job and for this job, strong was better than continuous light, so just a follow up that kind of answers a question from sam cox, who was from colorado. We're asking people where they're from because you know what sam was from, and he has so many great questions of colorado that's great. Uh, the question is, do you ever shoot outdoors for fashion? We talked about doors yesterday for beauty, or do you prefer to be in the studio where you control the light? Wow, this time next week I'll be in trinidad shooting fashion. Um, I love being outdoors. Lama inspiration comes from travel if I go to india, why go to cape churchill? Those trips inspire the fashion, and then it leads to me shooting fashion on location. My very first, very first session to my career was the two it shoot in st lucia. All over the island of st lucia and I love that stuff and now I'm going back to the same thing again here twenty five years later to an island to shoot more fashion so I like it both by lecturing in studio and in location and uh I don't know I just love shooting period we'll cook to that what gear do you bring with you? I mean, this is a lot of gear tohave in studio what are you packing around with you when you're doing those on location shoot what do I bring on location when I'm shooting a fashion story? What do we bring? I always have a battery operated packed like a seven b which is a battery operated back like this but uh just battery operated I always bring that magnum reflector on location our pride bring two heads to see stands but I want to shoot with natural light a lot time so this is like a backup in case that's like you know what overcast day and I want more punch I also take um what's the company california sun bounds they make a son swatter that's one every job on location we bring reflectors uh we're bringing beer bigger civil reflectors and white reflectors were bringing drop cloths for bringing dua teens we re bring more batteries with more brain more back up we bring sandbags to the beach but they're empty we've rang water for the crew on location everybody's ten times more thirsty so having water is the most having a first aid kiss kit is the most having flashlights we're going on location sometimes at four in the morning to be out there to get location set up and be ready shoot before sunrise and get that sunrise coming up uh we're bringing what else uh back up meters in case somebody go one myself once on a job we were on and I we were in jamaica shooting and my sister is the first shoot of the day the first shot of the job of the two week job my assistant is at the edge of the ocean pilot like two steps in the ocean and doesn't meet a reading and scream like me f four to fifty gouache first shot of the trip thank god we had a backup meter because that saltwater makes that a paperweight don't even think about digital cameras with salt water in the sand oh, we bring things to clean the camera gear who bring plastic wraps for that for the gear zip locks for the gear because with your shooting on the beach all the time you have the sand and you're always cleaning the year we bring things to clean the sensor on location because every day that sense is getting something on it guaranteed so you think about all that stuff and you think beyond just the normal stuff, what were you need like sometimes like my seasons have on things for their knees on the ground all the time or little carts for being away? You think about everything producer comes in? He absolutely this is where a great kick butt producer comes in because they think about everything they have a list of everything that I want if I want only green eminem's, they have that therefore I'm not that crazy. We bring all the main stuff with us. I can't take a chance on something, I think small stuff you can get anywhere, but the main stuff we bring with us could you repeat the question? She asked if I bring everything with me, so I only bring the essentials they can only get I can't get it on an island somewhere at a grocery store. I'll bring anything with me all of the essentials with me tape gft, black, white rope, everything we want we bring with us what if you can't find something on location like the flats? You can't really bring those on a plane with you if you want them in trinity. Um, what if you can't find the stuff that you need on location gear, y's v flats, uh, the board or whatever boards and the flats difficult, not find on an island so we're not bringing to the flats for things like that on location that way we are bringing things like the sun balance which break down and open up to be really big like these boards the sun bounce khun breakdown it's very easy to put together the collapsible they're strong the wind goes through them so doesn't become a big sale they're wonderfully used on location so in all those jobs like that it's, different gear and a lot of great dear could be found at california sun bounce I love that company for location great stuff have a question from ruby marine from oklahoma how do you keep the background outdoors from overpowering clothes? I've never been asked that question and that's a great question how do you keep the background from overpowering your subject when you're on location? When I was an assistant I used to look at at elle magazine all the time and in the eighties elle magazine was a beautiful, beautiful magda silly it's buy used to love it in the eighties and if harper was a jill bensimon french photographer in new york, there were some great location the girls are totally in focus and everything else was out of focus how does he do that? How you do that now with the new york cannon assistant now I found that I was doing it every day long lenses three hundred nominal lenses at shooting at f or the girls tell ian focus the backgrounds blown away so long lenses, blowing things out or using any fires, one hundred macro lenses and shooting f to f two point eight f four and blowing the background out. I don't want anything the fight, the the girl and the material she has on the clothes she has on the fashion is the hero even on location. So on location I'm shooting wider, open apertures to have her and focus in the background just as a subtle environment that's out of focus. So you have the feeling of being on an island but the girls the focus that swimsuit, that fashion that's a great, great great question we love questions like that one. So how do you you were talking about shooting f twenty two earlier and how you got that focus range? How do you handle that? With relying on the models, not posing per se on location, shooting at four and making sure they're in focus. Thank god you know it's funny. Back in the eighties, before ordell focus lindsays came out. It was much harder keeping that girl in focus, and I sort this photographer and he made this sheet. It was just black will be aboard like I used to work for photographer and we were always shooting on locations matter fact we were shooting all the victoria's secrets jobs back in the eighties and this before auto focus really took over this photographer made a bored to help him focus so if he's using that that long lens that three hundred to eight on the girls one hundred feet away he has to focus on her face he would have a board we put this much neater than this but he do this to help focus today we have amazing auto focus lens is a thousand times easier than before auto focus so now f four I'm gonna focus on her face I am also one make sure she's moving in pi laterally versus going back and forth so as girls of moving the due he steps like this and a lot of models know about all that the state in focus so you the malign assistance off to the side with the meter meter ring girls moving but staying in that same plane that's you do that so they were f for location background out of focus now in studio were at f twenty two it changes everything don I just want to see the color check her one more so my crew has changed things around that fast I don't even see it happen can I ask you a color check or question as you're absolutely question from good guitar got us one of our regulars from new york a little guitar guy got it? Got it. Got it. Got it. Yes. She's from new york course. D do you ever send the color checker test shot to the bag scene so they can calibrate the color with their computers to no, no, I don't send this to magazines. It would be greek to them, they're not photographers and our technicians there are editors. I never send this to them. I've never known one that would understand what this is. They may be out there, but I haven't met them yet. Way were at eighteen before, so I want to do it at twenty two. Okay? We're gonna be shooting and make sure that we're all set. And again here, great and great corn. Great. Thank you for thank you, man. So now we are ready to go. We've made adjustment to the background. We have our crew together. We have the mall looking amazing. I'm going to bring one of the students here to work on the fan on, uh, let's go with carlos. Nothing. The nervous about it all. Yeah, I'm not in front. So now this intro luigi, we want here, this is your your cinema, larsen is your cleaning. You want his own full, and this is your other side. So I want the same energy looking away, smiling. If you sing to yourself, anything you want to do, I want that energy that's, all I care, and you're leading this dance. Someone followed you so as it goes, can play around. You have this jacket move around that grab the skirt, so I want to see it moving it, possibly even you take a big step against you, could have it going to the side. Throw the hair back. Do you want? I want energy, movement, vitality, that's, what we want. You look fantastic, mr hands, mr ring's. Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful, beautiful.

Class Materials

bonus material

MJS Storyboard Concepts.pdf

Ratings and Reviews

a Creativelive Student
 

Thanks Matthew for the super informative courses. I'm from Thailand and I'm very impress with the way you speak. It is super clear and very easy to understand. Your answers to each questions are extremely inspirational. I think you are the best teacher on photographing so far on Creative Live. Each of your answers and information are very motivational and very thoughtful. Thanks again for this great Live broadcast. You are a great teacher and a very nice warm person as well.

a Creativelive Student
 

Thanks Matthew this two days have been amazing, and I am looking forward for the last day,,in which you will be talking aobut the photography i would like to do, since is my dream to be a fashion photographer i have learn a lot from you, and this expirience has been amazing, if i only lived in L.A. and not mexico city, i would definitely write you a letter and try to be your assistant to learn as much as possible from such and amazing photogrpher and person; once angain thanks for everything. Thamks creativelive for bringing this amazing photographers, and letting us learn more and more about the amazing world of photogrphy.

a Creativelive Student
 

This course has been an awesome experience. I have learned so much about the process of beauty and fashion photography. Matthew takes the viewer through the preliminary thought process. He not only covers the technical aspects but also the importance of the photographic team itself--the stylist, makeup artist, model and photo assistants. The photographer plus the team equals magic. I do not use the term amazing lightly. This man is AMAZING and INSPIRING! Thanks to Matthew, I feel confident that I will find my own vision.

Student Work

RELATED ARTICLES

RELATED ARTICLES