Skip to main content

Shoot: Ballerina Look Part 2

Lesson 5 from: Experimental Portraits

Sue Bryce, Lara Jade

Shoot: Ballerina Look Part 2

Lesson 5 from: Experimental Portraits

Sue Bryce, Lara Jade

buy this class

$00

$00
Sale Ends Soon!

starting under

$13/month*

Unlock this classplus 2200+ more >

Lesson Info

5. Shoot: Ballerina Look Part 2

Next Lesson: Shoot: Floral Look

Lesson Info

Shoot: Ballerina Look Part 2

I want to do a similar concept what we did before something very simple but I want more of a fuller length to it now this backdrop does not reach the floor and go go over the floor so we're just going to crop into where the ribbon is a the bottom on dh when aaron pulled this I approved it because it has a lot of shape to it so we don't have to go so literal with ballerinas theme whenever I do things like that and you'll start seeing fashion magazines ah lot of photographers will do a theme but it's not just two twos it's oh how can a ballerina more dark ballerina with like an old bail or vintage gown that's kind of pulled up in an old ribbon so there's a lot of different ways that we kind of what quit that and aaron is great a kind of translating that tooth okay ready karen all right just to see how it looks first and then we'll and we've got the same light set up I haven't changed anything right now still going as we were just take a slight step that way for me yeah great reflected th...

is time just time to the side I just want to see how if you bunched up and held it yeah it's beautiful it's a really nice shape and just kind of me back suppose she showed it in head back this way great beautiful. You want to reflect in there again? Yeah, because I think this is nice from this side. So if we just a tiny fly, I kind of lean into your shoulder again? Yep. That's so beautiful. It could get you sitting on the chair. Actually, yeah. So in my studio, I have about three different stores, and they're all kind of old and weathered and what's great is I don't always want an especially studio work. It's quite playing if you just have a model kind of sitting there and especially for a portrait set in and we don't just want a normal chair, so I just get an old weathered store from a vintage store that's kind of you really cheap and it's so great for, like, movement, and you can see automatically how much this change this outfit. And I wouldn't have known that's from straight away until I saw in the outfit and that it wasn't quite working straight on that backdrop and you can see already adds a nice movement to the dress. It kind of compliment the fact that she can now move her legs as well, and especially if you have somebody that doesn't really move well unset it's, nice to have a chair for them to kind of sit in and they feel a little bit more comfortable like I know see yesterday when I pulled her off the chest she was kind of like, uh this is like a little seated kind of thing. So so laura that's actually a question that click madness just asked was when using the same backdrop and lights set up for multiple outfit how do you give the entire shoot a different look? Because said that it doesn't all look the same way, so in addition to the stools and of course you'll be processing these images but are there are some other things that you can think about? Yeah, I mean, if I was shooting this is a fashion story I have to have the consistency in the background I always try and keep the background consistent if anything, but when we are going to be doing the next self it we're going to change the background of again so you'll see a totally different that's because these two are going together so I could kind of see them working together and I liked the lights set up for that, but I also wanted to try it with this outfit because it's about complimenting out to the backdrop and I thought this would work well on the text you back thank you okay, so if he just kind of put you leg a bit further down. Sophie, place this leg lower it further. That's it yet great. Because I just want to see the bottom of that and then pull your dress up and really kind of moved into the dress, but not yet that's it kind of lean into your on great and lean to the side. Yep. That's it either for because the model is now leaning forward. I have just moved that extra tiny to get consistent light on her face with this reflector. Just this part of the dress just kind of and you just move around how you feel comfortable and I'll start suggesting from that as well. Okay, beautiful it's really nice when you look down a lot of action. Yeah, great. And just try not to put up too much kind of leave the leg kind of lower and then move your arms to frame it. So I think what you should do is keep your back that way, but thiss arm over there and just pull your dress up with this hand yet great and try not to too much shape here. Kind of relax that shoulder yet that's it and chin down a swell great erin, would you mind jump in infamy adjust, adjust in the dress again kind of two similar to so it's kind of bunched up besides you actually would you mind holding the dress because I'm gonna crop anyway yeah like hold it up from the side to be adds a bit of yes so often if I want movement on this set I'd have somebody in the corner like holding the dress like a didn't might get reshoot or waving it for movement as well because I'm cropping it I don't mind that and I want the kind of um what's the word I want the kind of composition of it not too straight down the dress I want some kind of round area here for the composition okay I mean that's that's fine I think that's good yep alright so that beautiful yep do like some wind I think we're good with it because it went sure beautiful that's it and looked down as well great okay ex beautiful exciting a great job I just want to try and get the shoes in a bit more maybe it's about because you're quite tor you need a bigger chair that's what it is yeah that's really nice but as long as you're kind of hell it would you feel more comfortable higher up are you my uncle books? Yeah. Okay so with the leg just kind of yeah that's it beautiful because we want to make sure that this theme is ballerinas we want to get a shoe in to kind of get across that I'm gaze a looks good now either yeah, a little bit of reflection is perfect beautiful great suddenly can you lean into you like a small yeah erin if you just keep moving the dress like that as well because you know we might capture a little bit of movement so I've just got aaron to kind of move the dress to add a little bit of me and hopefully it just kind of you kind of blurry on the side and add a bit of interest this is what I would do on every sheet is always about experimentation it's always about you know it's never set is it aaron it's always kind of okay, we'll try this will try this let's move on and and then we get the best images from doing night great just a little bit of sadness in the eye like just frowned just slightly if you can grate beautiful and can you be really symmetrical to me mouth open just slightly erin I can see you on I'm sorry and as assistant I'm always trying to anticipate what laura might need self just brought a few like this and then you hands a kind of delicate and in mouth open yet I've brought this apple box on set because I noticed laura was trying to make sure we get the shit for a little bit just a little more delicate with fingers great just a few more looking away shoulder into yushin yet sorry and I keep grabbing your hand while you're in there forgetting okay and shame down just a little bit and into your leg kind of light in a shy and then kind of yeah that's nice and then straight on with that as well. So it's kind of like just under you're holding onto your knee but your hand is just there yeah, beautiful yeah, I'll be nice to get a bit of so it's not so straight there, erin all right, I think we're nearly done so just going to take a few more mouth open just slightly great beautiful and some looking away as well and just the hand that's kind of rap just kind of loosen it a little to pull it back see elbows back yet here for you okay I mean, I'm happy with those so what I want to do is dio one more set it while we have time which is going to be on a blue seamless so I'm going to introduce that in a second you want to change her outfit into the third and final and then we're gonna change the backdrop of this. Well, do you have any questions or they're changing that up? We absolutely dio sa we're flying out the background here we have one from fashion tv from singapore another regular who is awesome we love his questions uh, you mentioned shooting for a story? Can you talk a little bit more about what you, what a story a fashion story is and any practical tips like what are the key factors that define a story? Yeah background, consistent variety of poses just stuff like that? Yeah, I mean, a story doesn't have to be something with a narrative it could be a theme, so when we say fashion story, it could be a set theme, it could be that we do have a kind of ongoing concept or we want to kind of flow for example, I did a story about joan of arc where I had the start, where she was kind of this beautiful, regal kind of things that we replicated it with jewellery and perfect makeup and as too like the eighth image, it was like a dark, charred kind of look like a lot doc with crosses and we kind of wanted to get that kind of idea across, so it would kind of go from one thing being a very ethereal down to being a little bit dark, so when we talk about story again, it doesn't have to be very literal it could be that we have a general idea and it's just that you're expected to have a concept if a magazine will contact you or you would submit to a magazine as well kurt no, archie had asked bianca, thank you, bianca, bianca had as if we are going to be seeing how you post process these images, so that tells me that some people are continuing to join us throughout the day, and I haven't been with us all day, so yes, could you talk a little bit about what we are going to do later with these definitely way gonna be? I've made some tech just for this course that I shot from everyday items and things around me, so I'm going to be using those textures to overlay in a ll the shots that you see me take today, I'm going to process an edit in the way that I would do skin color, tone in everything you can see in all of my techniques, I'm going to give those to you. I'm going to show you how I use thes textures to overlay in different modes of overlaying as well wonderful couple just sort of practical questions on, then I think we've got one in the audience here, first of all, what white balance or you're using in your shooting this, and then also choice of lens, can you talk about your choice of lens? Sure, so my white balance, because I have a warm, continuous site, this is not the stroke is set to pull and that just gives me a good kind of preview example it kind of helps the white balance because if we didn't have that it would be very warm overall image because of the color temperature is coming from here so because I'm shooting in war as well I'm shooting with the pool that kind of gives me that cooler thing and I knew that before I would obviously shoot it and when I process it I'm further kind of making that cooler is well and d such raiding the skin as we said earlier about kind of decide traded and my choice of lens the fifty is actually this is a really good question because I used the fifty and usually the seventy mil or above is what no sorry seventy is more of a true accurate on a full frame sensor to what is what we would see a portrayed so it's true to the eye now she did on fifty gives me a little bit of distortion but it's not too much so when I do a portrait like this this is kind of more true to the eye now sue would use a thirty five because she slams people down and she wants a little bit of distortion to the head is figure and the body is smaller now I want more of a true vision to see what you would see in rene since portrait how people were painted so I like that kind of thing and also because it goes down to one point two I really love shooting on white aperture for this obviously we can't go as low because I want some detail here but that's, the reason for this choice of land and this pretty much never comes off my camera. The three lenses I uses my eighty five mil one point two I have my twenty four to seventy two point eight and then my fifty mil um one point to a swell it's my fifty million my eighty five really might go to lenders for studio on natural light as well. Way had a question in the front row it's too cold, so come together. But when you first you moved to new york, what were your best resource is to build your creative team, like on a low budget? Because evidently gun model mayhem, for example, you know, you go to a lot of a scout for the website saying no test shoots or and then also after you do a test shoot and say erin's pulling ten eight to ten looks are you then submitting these to the designers or people you pulled from and then are they used for yeah, that's a kind of build, yeah, I answer there first and that's mainly the creative team when I moved from london to neal I had to start again getting a team on I would look at people in line I would google people even people that to bridle they want to get out of rydell and de fashion tested and more conceptual, so I will google people look at their work see if they have good techniques because all you need is someone that has a good basic technique for skin and knows what they're doing people a cosmetology schools who have recently graduated mano mayhem I kind of used to kind of get out there a bit, but it just take a bit of time to find the right people also agencies you could reach out tio creative agency is that present make silas because sometimes those makeup artists have assistance and the same can be said for contacting a professional makeup artist that may be a bit ahead of you right now because they've got a lot more like a lot of things they've got a lot of clients but they may have assistance that opened for test in. So when I moved to new york that's the kind of ways in which I would get people and I'd get like two makeup artist to have silence two stylist I'd meet them if we got on we would test together and we would do a test first is like to figure out whether we liked it and in which an editorial and the second question was about the clothing and pulling and was always for your application even though it's a test yeah and that like erin's going from different designers and then are you sending those images in their then are they used or even for tests like you can do a test and submit it? But the problem is if you have vintage clothes and they not designers that's not going to be good for seventy two a magazine because that magazine wants credit so they can credit the clothing whereas if you do in a test with vintage it really should just be for a test it's a bit harder to submit so if you don't have anything right now get a stylist or do it yourself with vintage to build then you can start to get designer clothes because also this stylist is going to want to see that you can get images into magazines swell okay, sorry one more question with mine and then once so after you're done shooting the editorial do then submit that story to companies with your aesthetic or designers of your aesthetic you don't mean this human you were allowed to to shado t mean that I just shy submit your touch too like are you once you're finished are you sending them to different creative director? Oh yeah well I kind of date clients so I'll just say like oh here's my new work so clients that I have a good reputation with a kind of send those but tests for me right now are really because I want to do my personal work or I want to test my dear for an editorial. Well, always set my time aside for that. So for you guys test khun b that as well or it's to start to build something else to the to get to the next level of editorial? Um so when you do test shoots that say you borrow clothes or whatnot and then do you give those photos to the company of our the close room and you said a usage for how much they can use that item so the stylist will send it will be responsible for sending those pictures in or if you pull the clothes, you will be responsible for sending that to them. So I think it's important that they do get the photos like the creative team does, but if there's a stylist there, they are responsible for dealing with that cedar have to deal with the next part. What was the second part of usage? Do you set usage when you give them the photos to you? Oh yeah, usually it's just personal use so I say because you've let it the clothes if I am borrowing from you or the stylist is they can use them on their social media and say, justus, we would as well would like certain images, too, so that you just gotta always make sure, because some people are confused. They don't understand. You said, right, so if you are sending them, okay, this is just for social media and personal. You've certainly

Class Materials

bonus material with purchase

Sues Textures
LJEssentialActions
Lara Jade Textures
Lara Jade Textures for PC
QA Erin OKeefe Stylist
QA Felix Kunze Assisting and Lighting
Sue Bryce and Lara Jade Lighting Guide

Ratings and Reviews

photogirl
 

This was my first Creative Live course and I thoroughly LOVED it! While contemplating purchasing the course, I was a bit weary because some of the reviewers commented on how they wished they could have seen Sue Bryce give more in depth information about one of her projects, but there is SO MUCH information that is packed into this class. I LOVE Lara Jade and her work is amazing. The enthusiasm that both instructors bring to the class, their eagerness to share their workflow and wonderful retouching methods are worth every penny and then some. Going into the class, I already was familiar with Lara's beautiful fashion photography and really wanted to know her trade secrets so for me this was everything I needed. For me, the bonus feature was getting an insight into Sue's wonderful mind and how she conceptualizes, photographs and retouches her amazing portraits! Wow, I learned so much and I HIGHLY recommend these ladies and this course. Creative Live just one more thing... please, more LARA JADE courses!!

Kristen Clapham Photography
 

SO glad I bought this one...!!! Check out Day 2 - "the gospel according to Sue Bryce" - it's absolutely awesome - if you feel like you've been in a creative rut then you've gotta own this and watch it repeatedly!!! Thanks Sue, thanks Lara, thanks Creative Live team... another GREAT workshop!!

Susie
 

fantastic to see Lara in this; she's so natural and inspirational, and so generous with her resources. I would love to see her do another course, maybe with Felix too as I love his lighting and creativity. More, please!

Student Work

RELATED ARTICLES

RELATED ARTICLES