Hi everyone!
Sorry this is so late, I'm really looking forward to shooting with you all this weekend! I only do one or two studio days a year, and when I decided to do one, Inspire was literally first on my list after we had such a fun shoot last year.
I'll be there with my wife, lucy, who loves coming to the pole days and helps me sort everything as well as spotting hairbands left on wrists or labels on the soles of shoes (that I always miss)
I thought I'd just put some notes and instructions for galleries on this private page to make it easy to access.
I know you shoot a lot at Inspire so whether with Den or Me, i am sure many of you have shot before - but for those who haven't...
Unless you have certain tricky shots that you have to get out of the way whilst you are feeling strong, it helps maximise your shoot time if you group your shapes together based on where you end up, either up the pole, on the floor, inverted etc. Grouping means we have to spend less time changing the lights around and gives us more shooting time.
Colours are good, sparkles are good, props are good, swishy material is good, batsh*t crazy ideas are good. We shot some brilliantly left field stuff last year that were some of my favourites from the weekend.
As well as your best tricks though, remember a lot of simpler shapes and poses by the pole, stood or on the floor look just as good or better - hopefully we'll have time for each of you to nail your tricks, and run through some simple stuff to give you lots of choice.
we'll be shooting tethered to an ipad, so you will be able to check your shapes and make sure you are happy with them as we go through
We are shooting a cleaner aesthetic this year - Azaria and Charlotte chose a forget-me-not blue backdrop that i love shooting on, it looks great - and we'll shoot with primarily white lights - but as always you'll get a light colour edit, a darker edit and a mono of each shot.
you get 5 edits included in your shoot, and extra edits can be ordered at £15 each
so in the few days after the shoot, I will send you all out a proofing gallery link
The link is NOT passworded, but only you and I have it, so just be aware that if you choose to share it with anyone (which you of course are welcome to do), they will have the same access as you. If you lose control of the link, I can always reset a new link so only you have it again.
The proofing gallery will be live for a week or so for you to make your choices. Sorting it is an annoyingly manual process, so be aware it is possible on rare occasions for the odd shot of someone else appearing in the gallery, let me know if that happens.
First off – be aware that the proofing shots look TERRIBLE! You’ll see the studio, the angles I was leaping about at as I was following you shooting, the tears in the floor, the uneven backdrop light. Absolutely NONE of that matters, as it will all change in the edit.
You are just looking at you – your position, face, pointy toes (or not), whether you were pulling a concentration face etc etc.
If you like those things, the rest will be sorted in edit. The photo you choose will look completely different when you get it back.
Editing...
I will edit exactly as you want me to – my standard level which seems to suit the majority of people tends to be removal of the obvious stuff – bruises, red marks etc. I usually smooth skin and shadows to a degree. If as is often the case with pole, the position is good but it is unflatteringly crunched up or your thigh is dragged down the pole from the grip, I usually fix those things too.
Outside of that it is very personal. Some people enjoy the blunt honest self love view and want every lump and bump left in all its glory. Some people have come back from 2 weeks all inclusive in the Dominican Republic and want me to undo all the free rum cocktails. Some people have stretch marks and want them left alone as they were earned, some want me to minimise them as much as possible. Some people just want a best possible version of themselves in the shot and ask me to make their bum rounder and bigger or their waist tinier.
All of that is absolutely fine – I want to reassure everyone that I get a huge range of views, and there is no right or wrong, so please just let me know if you have a preference, as it is hard for me to guess how you feel about it.
So unless we have spoken, I will do my standard thing – if you think you want more or less, or if you have a specific thing you’d like me to be aware of, or you want strictly no bodyshape outline adjustment, just message me and I’ll accommodate!
Here’s an example of a common edit level – using my lighting assistant you will recognise from the shoot (my lovely wife, Lucy!)
Rating your photos:
The selection process is easy. Underneath each photo is a star rating. Once you have chosen your final shots, just mark your selection as 5 Stars and then message me to say you are done.
You don’t have to, but if it helps you can feel free to use the star ratings to narrow down your choices, because you can filter on the number of stars you have awarded – so for instance, you could do an initial sweep through, awarding each shot you would consider with 1 star. Then filter on that number and it will only show you the ones you have shortlisted. You can then go through again awarding shots you are more keen on as 2 star, then 3, etc until you are down to your final selection of 5 shots which should each have 5 stars selected. (There is a filter button – but it looks like a search button, when you click it, it brings up a filter option, so you can filter on your one star shots, then go through shortlisting with 2 stars, 3 stars etc until you have your choices at 5 star)
As you select, it updates on my catalogue, so I will ignore any other star ratings, and when you tell me you are done choosing, I just filter on 5 stars, and I can see your choices! I will ignore any other star ratings you have used to narrow down your selection.
(There is the option to comment on photos, but be aware those comments do not appear in my catalogue – so if you like a shot but want a specific thing fixed, or to know if we can change a particular aspect, you are better off just messaging me direct with a photo number or screenshot to check.)
if you do decide to order any more shots, just let me know how many more at the same time as telling me you have made your final selection - you can make payment to the same account you already have and it's helpful for my terrible admin skills if that can all be done at the same time. however, some people previously wanted to order more but wait for payday etc - that's of course absolutely fine, just let me know when you confirm your choices - i am super relaxed about that side of it, which is probably why my admin is so terrible.
Editing time varies and I quote 6 weeks, but it is depending very much on how quickly people get their choices back to me, and how many shots people order if some people decide immediately they want more. I get through them as quick as I can for you because apart from anything I hate having a huge edit queue and like getting them done as quickly as I can! As it's a 2 day shoot, I would expect I'll need most of that 6 weeks - however time consuming you think the editing might be, I promise you it is worse :-)
When I am done, I will let everyone know and you will get a new link sent, this time to a private gallery with your final edits all in high resolution (rather than low res proof shots). These will be big enough for print etc if people decide to send them off for canvas or framing which many do.
Those galleries will be live for at least 6 weeks, so make sure you make yourself a couple of copies of the galleries in that time - if you have an issue just let me know so I can make sure I don't close your gallery before you have them.
OK, I think that is everything - any problems, questions, issues, now or at any stage, you can whatsapp me direct to make sure i see your message - 07760 626569
And the final things I have to tell everyone - if anyone is shooting for the first time, it will be more relaxed and fun than you think. don't stress.
Also, as we shoot, you need to know 3 things.
1 - wherever i put my camera down, i will lose it like a complete amateur. i have done this before, i promise
2 - when i shoot, i talk to myself or swear at my camera more than you might expect from a grown-ass adult.
3 - i have the worst habit for a photographer, which is that when i concentrate i frown. if i am looking at you and frowning, i promise it is not you i am frowning at - i am looking at where the light is falling which cam be really off-putting. i have tried to fix it, but it's just my face and a big part of why i am always this side of the camera. :-D
Lucy and I will See you on the weekend - we are looking forward to it!