Yeah, we had a lot of crazy light shooting out there and also a lot of fun and so we picked just a quick sampling of the images we're working towards, you know? We're able the showcase hey, this is what I got and this is how I want to correct for it. That is a lot of how I shoot I don't know about you guys, but I feel like very often when I am out shooting, I'm just working towards something that's kind of the whole goal it's I don't think I've ever had a chute where I roll out it's like everything was gold one hundred percent all the time just doesn't work that way for me, so and we build some of the shots we have here that you see on the monitor working with the corrugated steel right when we get started, you know, you noticed that initially when we're getting started, we have to warm our subjects up in this case is literally, but also to get them figuratively warmed up for the shots and moving in with there are other models and bring in the chair a cz muchas possible, I like to move...

through standing and seating and on the ground and with other people and also stuff um and we had our little boy who only really responded when we took the camera away that's where he kind of let up, which was really fun and it's one of the reasons why hold the camera away from myself when I'm shooting a lot anyway? Miss scroll on down on dh then we have working here with lighting. We had a chance to show the bright hot spots on how to correct for them without doing anything other than repositioning our subject down here towards the end, we've got these two images right next to each other that's the original, I took one image and quickly just duplicated to show how sometimes I'm just going to go for what I get for the moment and the expression, knowing that I've got a lot of reach in there to be able to recompose and deliver the shot I want, I would say probably crop in on roughly about thirty percent of my images um and mohr, if if there's a lot more distractions and things that I've got a manager, I'm going to go for the depression and the moment and then crop in I mean that's exactly what I do in those cases and then had a switch it so you're not just doing a lot of straight on shooting, but going from the sides and doing a lot of different angles, which we did towards the end, which was a lot of fun. So that's just a quick overview of that I know you guys asked some good questions when we were out there did you have any last ones in terms of seeing these kind of put together kind of this would be how the what I would select on on a regular shoot I would probably deliver somewhere in the realm of sixty to seventy images from a portrait session and I do in a very similar way to this doing a lot of, you know, shots working towards it, getting what I want and delivering those final picks damn it, we did have a couple more questions from the state from the internet and then we can go over here is well, but just lisa was asking about do you prefer shooting down at the subject being versus shooting up at them so that sort of eye line I level? Yeah that's a great question I think in terms of what I'm going for that's going to have a big impact often if I'm doing a photography for for instance, doing a personal profile or a editorial shot which I do quite often for athletes where you're going to really showcase them strong and in charge and powerful I'm going to choose a lower angle and if I don't initially have it I'm going to shoot from a lower angle and and make that happen or make my subject rise a little bit with children I tend to want to shoot and you can see there's a lot of these images I tend to want to shoot with just a hint down but more kind of on that if we could scroll back up a little bit steel you'll see a lot of that angle isn't actually coming through you'll see very little where I'm going quite top down but there will be somewhere I'll tilt the subject up a little bit just to see the difference in terms of the field but I would say in general say this is shooting down and this is shooting a bit up but in general I mostly just a hand up with a little tilt which I think is a very natural angle and attractive angle for children dropping do you ever leave a little bit more space when you're shooting in case your clients want toe print eight by ten's ok, so yes I like to try to frame with a little bit more space around if you could see for instance like this is a perfect example that's not how I would want to deliver this when I deliver it would be in and tighter but we have some room there there's a few of them that show that here this is not time to deliver its going to tighten in if we could go down a little bit steal this is a great example that's not neither one of these images would be delivered that way I'd be tightening in on dh cropping it and what I do is I delivered to the client the way I like it keeping the original so that when they say and and I'll tell you exactly what the situation is that comes up a lot but when they end up saying well, we really like that made by ten and I asked why and they say well, because that's what you do you get an eight by ten I will most often say this really fits beautifully in this two by three orientation I would love to see is an eight by twelve and in a case like that very often and we have our price prices for prints so that there's no additional charge per day by twelve one eight by ten it just tends to look better for a lot of images that air shot that way in those cases where they're saying we have this one you know, my great aunt's frame that we must feel and it's made by ten okay, we'll go back to the original shot and re crop it for you so but in general I really want them to get the orientation that we think it looks best in well I think we can keep moving everyone remember that we have unless we had more questions here ok go ahead of my question everybody looks like so happy and all of your photographs which is awesome and they're all smiling do you ever throw in any serious I dio ideo I think you know and it's actually it's a great tie into what we're about to talk about now in terms of the expressiveness one of the things I find most impactful about having longer sessions those were as you could see go go, go because one to show points we show technicals we want to show exposure and all these things that we're working through but in the longer shoots you get the luxury of showing the whole child and there are very few to maybe no portrait shoots that I turn around that don't have that whole spectrum of expression because that's who we all are and in these I find with children the easiest thing to do is get the happy and I mean that across the board even children are very reserved, very shy you just you only need that one comment or that one look to get the look that you want andi I would say in general, my go to feel that I love for my image is that joyous kind of celebrating life feel I mean, I think children embody that more than anything else and it be ashamed to not show it that being said the full thing I know with my three children I've seen every expression of your son and I want to, I want to shoot all that. So in a normal session, will have that. I think we had. I don't know, we didn't pick here, we scroll down, we did some where we were going, a little serious, but this was a quick grab so we can show those at the end. We'll show some of those.

Class Materials

Free Downloads

Children and Family Photography Syllabus

Adoption Myths and FAQs

Tamara Lackey Photographing Eyes in Portraits

buy this class

$00

Buy Class

Sale Ends Soon!

starting under

$13/month*

Unlock this classplus 2000+ more >

79.7K Students

99% Recommend this Class

00 Student Work

0 Video lessons in HD
00h 00m of class content
Exclusive bonus content
Lifetime access, anywhere, anytime
Streaming access on desktop and mobile browsers
Download and offline access with class purchase
Offline sync with our iPhone & iPad apps
100% satisfaction guarantee

Tamara Lackey

Tamara Lackey is a renowned portrait photographer and Nikon USA Ambassador whose photography has appeared in a multitude of media outlets, including O Magazine, Men’s Journal, Good Morning America and on The Today Show. She speaks regularly at quite a range of programs, seminars and conventions, from delivering presentations on the Google stage to leading private workshops around the globe.

SEE INSTRUCTOR'S CLASSES

topics covered in this class

Family & Lifestyle Portrait Photography Lighting Digital Photography

Ratings and Reviews

a Creativelive Student

Thank yo Tamara Lackey and Creative Live for such an amazing course. Every tool that is needed to maintain a successful business is in this course. Tamara's appreciation for love and family are so apparent in her style of interaction with people and methods of photographing them. In this class she shares everything from the basics of connecting with your clients to the importance of in person sales sessions and how to do them without being uncomfortable. I love Tamara's energy and sense of humor. She really emphasizes how important it is to be self confident and love what you do. This class is amazing. I can barely sit still through a movie these days, but I was entranced through 3 consecutive days of highly valuable information. I am thankful to have this class in my CL library. I am sure I will refer to it often.

Abbeylynne

Thank you! Thank you for bringing Tamara back to Creative Live! She is one of my favorite teachers! She has a bubbly effervescence as she teaches. I like her teaching style and never tire of her message in photography. Tamara has a way of working with her models/ clients that makes you want to just jump through the screen to participate in the process! Her portrait stories share her zest for life. She has great business ideas as well as for life and family. A truly balanced instructor for the beginning photog as well as a seasoned professional. Refreshing concepts about how to deal with challenging situations with lighting, posing, and interaction with her families. It's hard to pick a favorite section - the entire class was just great! A wonderful resource for your library to refer back to time and again. Keep up the great work Tamara. You inspire me to get out and shoot!

user-6a96fc

What can I say- it's Tamara Lackey, so of course it was AMAZING! I learned so much, about relationships, self awareness, lighting, portraiture, posing, gear, marketing, products, I could just go on and on. Tamara has an incredible ability to truly connect with her clients (and her students)- and she taught us how to do it! I admire Tamara on so many levels and I appreciate how much of herself and her own business practices she was willing to share. Her new organization Beautiful Together is inspiring. I will be watching this course over and over. Thank you Tamara Lackey and thank you CreativeLive.

2,000+ classes ranging from fundamentals to advanced techniques.

Review of Selected Images

Review of Selected Images

Lesson Info

7. Review of Selected Images

Lessons

Simple Posing: Young Girl

Simple Posing:Young Boy

Group Posing: Two Girls

Backlit Shots: One Girl

Shooting in the Shade

Using the Rule of Thirds