092 - 5 Things you Can do to Elevate Your Images

This Week on the Podcast:

We’re talking about the 5 little things you can do to elevate your next photoshoot. These are little tips and tricks that changed my photography. You’ll learn about pre photoshoot and during photoshoot ideas that can change everything. Check out the episode now, or read the transcript below.

Transcript

How's it going, everybody? Welcome back to the podcast. I'm Robert Massey. This is the Travel and Adventure Photography School. Thank you so much for taking some of your invaluable time to hang out and listen today.

For today's episode, we are hanging out on the shores of Moraine Lake right after hiking into Larch Valley during Larch season. Oh, such a special and spectacular moment to be there. It's phenomenal. Larch season lasts for two, maybe three weeks in Banff National Park, and it's, it's magic when it hits. So for those of you who don't know, larches are a type of coniferous tree, so like an evergreen or a Christmas tree, that turn yellow and lose their needles just before the winter. So right as the weather starts to get a little bit colder, they start to change yellow, and then for about two to three weeks, there are forests of golden trees, and it is spectacular to walk amongst the larches, and it's one of the things that drives people to Banff National Park in the fall. If you look at an Instagram feed or anything like that from the end of September, beginning of October, you will see these golden larch trees everywhere.

They're up in the subalpine and the alpine kind of area, and they're one of the things that you almost have to hike to to get to. It's dedication to really get amongst these golden trees, but honestly, so worth it, especially if you are a adventure or landscape photographer, traveler photographer, or you just want to see something spectacular and beautiful and magical. Now, My suggestion would be definitely be in them for golden hour, which can be a lot of work because it means you're typically hiking at least five or six kilometers probably around five or 600 meters up into somewhere before sunrise starts. So it's definitely a dark start, but so worth it. If you can watch that golden light touch over the tops of those trees. Now that being said. This episode is not about larch trees as much as I would love to just talk about larches. I've done this before on the podcast. We've gone off about how to capture the best fall colours, and where to go for them, and why they're so special and amazing, but that's not what this episode is going to be about.

Because I think at this point, I don't need to convince you to go out and capture the fall colours. There's no reason to. They are spectacular, and because it's such a limited season, I think that drives a lot of us photographers to get out and document it. Even when it's gross and rainy, like it has been here for the last couple of weeks. I'm getting rained on again right now. I think you'll notice a common running theme in the last few episodes. And, yeah. Even then, it's still... A beautiful and fantastic and special moment to be out in these kind of colors. So, get out there. If you're listening to this while it is fall, go and document them. If you're not, plan a trip to somewhere where you want to see those fall colors, especially if you want to go somewhere into the mountains and see larches, because they are a unique thing that take effort to get to, but oh, so, so worth it.

I think I have gone on. We're looking at five or six larch hikes in the last nine to ten days. My legs are a little bit tired but it's, it's been so worth it to get to wander around in those golden forests.

That being said, this episode is not about larches. This episode is all about how you can improve your images with just a couple easy little tweaks to make your next brand shoot or your next couple shoot, your next portrait shoot or whatever it is. These little tweaks that you can make before your shoot and during it that will dramatically raise the quality of your photos. One of the things I find people asking about fairly consistently is what really starts separating people out when you know the rules of composition and you know how to break them and when to break them, when you know your exposure triangle and how to use your camera and all those good pieces, why is it that some people's images just have an extra spark or just something a little bit different or better about them?

And so that's what we're going to talk about here are some of the things that you can do that could possibly be that next bit that you need to really elevate your people photos.

All right, let's get into it.

So the first two are about things you can do before your photo shoot. These are relationship building pieces. So, it is critical that you don't just drop into a photoshoot without an understanding of that person you're working with, without an understanding of what their needs are, what their wants are, or why they're hiring you. I've seen too many photographers just be like, I booked this session, that's great. It's like, okay, what do you know about them? And they don't know anything. They know that they got booked, and that was it. Somebody hired them for a photoshoot. That's not ideal, and I know this isn't what a lot of people want to hear, but there's some legwork that should go in before you get into the production process with somebody.

So what that looks like is really straightforward and it doesn't change if you're doing a brand shoot or if you're doing an engagement shoot or a portrait shoot or anything like that. The amount of time investment might, but the concept doesn't shift. So what I mean by that is you want to sit down and have a direct conversation either through a FaceTime call, because it's critical to be able to read that person's expressions and to be able to listen and respond to not just their voice, but to their body language and to their tone. Or, sit down in person with them. And I know that's not always possible, but that is honestly the best way I've found to engage in these conversations. Because you need to get to know the people behind this photo shoot and what their needs are. And you need to build up that relationship of trust so that they can believe in you and trust in you when you go out to start shooting with them.

So, if you just show up on set and you've never really had a conversation with this couple or you've never really had a conversation with this client that's hired you, You don't actually know each other well enough to really have a huge amount of trust or belief in each other. And you might not actually understand their needs or there might be little nuances that you've missed because you haven't sat down and engaged in an in depth conversation. So prior to your shoot get on a video call or get down and sit down in person with them and really dig into their needs, their expectations, their wants. If this is a brand shoot, you need to understand how that brand wants its voice represented, how that brand wants to be visually represented. If this is a couple, you need to understand their story and their background. You really want to know what will make them smile, what's going to make them laugh, what's going to help them engage on a deeper and more trusting level with you. Because honestly, if you show up at a shoot and they don't know you yet, they might not be willing to tell you, oh, this isn't right, or, oh, this, doesn't feel right, or you might be struggling to get that couple to smile because you don't understand their sense of humor, or you don't understand their relationship to each other. Some couples do great if you get them to pick fun at each other, some couples really hate that and that's going to throw something off.

I did that at a wedding, where I typically have, the groomsmen kind of poke fun at the groom, and I knew the groom really well, but I didn't actually know the groomsmen at all before this wedding. And I asked one of the groomsmen Hey, could you tell, tell me a pretty funny story about the groom? And he, he got very angry about this, and he didn't want me to be making fun of this friend of his. And that wasn't the idea. The idea was to add some levity to a situation. And because I didn't understand that relationship in there, I caused a little bit of a rift that I had to spend some time repairing and understanding what had happened. Now, thankfully, we got over it, everything was great, the photos turned out beautifully, but a pre conversation with the groom about how his groomsmen interact with him and about how they tend to get each other to smile and what they mean to each other would have alleviated that situation right off the bat and not caused any tension whatsoever.

So. Get out there, have that conversation before you start your shoot and really not just understand your client's needs in terms of what they expect for delivery, but also understand your client's needs in how they need to be worked with, represented, and how you can build trust with them.

In addition to that conversation, one of the other things, and this is one of the tips that changed my photography and changed my approach to photography quite dramatically, was that I find that there's a lot of photographers who go into a shoot, and I was one of them, and would tell people what to do, and then expect them to listen and something just wouldn't feel right, and you couldn't quite put your finger on what it was.

And so I solved this by starting to have what I call a collaboration conversation, before the actual photo shoot starts.

So, I take five, ten minutes before we actually ever even pull out a camera and this is after you've done your typical, hey, how's it going this morning, how you feeling, you excited, you're getting them pumped. After you've had that welcome introduction moment, take five to ten minutes and talk with them about how you aren't dictating these images to them. That this isn't a one way street artistic creative process. That these images are for them, they are about them, and you want to make sure that they get the best photos that they possibly can. Because you are working with people who are emotionally invested in these photos. They're already emotionally invested and you want to get them even more emotionally invested. Now if you're creating a specific art project and you're documenting something or doing anything like that, don't need to worry about the collaboration piece because you're not collaborating, you're creating art for yourself. But when you're doing engagement shoots, and couple shoots, and portraits, and brand shoots, you aren't just creating something for you, you're creating something for somebody else who has a vision, or who has an expectation for what these images are going to be used for, what they look like.

And if you start by having this collaboration conversation, all of a sudden they are going to be way more emotionally invested and understanding of how you want them to work with you.

So, what I do is I tell them flat out I'm not here to dictate to you. I want you to tell me how you're feeling about the poses, how you're feeling about the places. If you're uncomfortable, if you love it, if you want to try something, I want you to give me feedback as we go. Now, you hired me because I have a specific talent. I have the ability to pose and light and do all these other things. I'll guide you through this process as we go, but if I pose you in the way that you're like, ah, this doesn't really represent us, let's not waste our time there. If you don't feel right, if you don't feel good, I need to know that so that we can create the best images that we possibly can that will make you smile, and that will make you overjoyed when you look at them. And that's it. It's a basic conversation like that. I answer a couple questions from them. I really... Kind of feel out how they're feeling about it and make sure that they understand that I really do want them to tell me and give me feedback and work collaboratively with me. Now, this is a huge huge huge part of my process at this point.

I found that my photos took a massive jump because if we only have an hour together and we spend 15 minutes of that doing things that I think that they're enjoying, but really they don't represent them at all, that's not good, that's not ideal in the slightest. And I feel like it's a really strong pose. I can show them and talk with them about it, and they like it, that's great, but if not, then we can just move on. We're not wasting time, and I can modify the way I pose people just by them telling me that one piece, because then I won't continue down lines that are in those similar poses, or that kind of put them in similar situations.

So. Have that collaboration conversation and you will just find that they will become much more emotionally invested in the images that they collaborated on with you, you're priming the pump because If you're collaborating with them on images, they're going to like them more already, because they had a hand in making them. And so you're actually going to make your client even happier because you're actively listening to them, you're actively engaging with them beyond just taking the photos. Tell them that this is not a one way street, that you are there to work with them to ensure that their vision is executed.

Because in the end, these aren't photos that just represent your brand and your artistic style. If you want to do that, go and set up some of your own shoots. These are photos that also represent another person's brand entirely. Who needs them for specific use cases and they've invested a lot of their hard earned money in hiring you and getting you to be there with them and possibly models and a few other things and it's really important to respect that. So yeah, relationship building that is tips one and two that will dramatically change your next photo shoot.

Now, tip number three.

This is where we get into things that you can do during the shoot that can make a massive, massive difference. Now, we all know at this point that wardrobe can make or break a photo in some ways. You get somebody in the wrong piece of wardrobe, something that's not flattering on them, something they don't feel comfortable in, photos aren't gonna turn out good. It doesn't matter what you do, it's really not gonna work. But, if you work with them on their wardrobe in advance, like most of us do, that's great, but you can take it a step further, especially in how we work. Because, you're not in a studio where someone can bring 10, 15 different outfits typically. We're, we're out on mountaintops. We're out skiing, doing other things. And so you really need to get that person prepped before they come to make sure that they have the right pieces versus the environment that you're going to be in.

Now what I mean is it comes down to the color of that clothing. So you need a piece of clothing that looks good on that person and that the color looks good on that person. But you also need to make sure that they're gonna pop out against the background and they're gonna really stand out. During larch season, most people tend to wear yellow puff coats. They look really, really good up against the orange and yellow of the larch trees. They pop out against the hopefully blue skies or even a grey sky. They just look really, really good. On grey rainy days, yellow looks amazing versus the blue haze in the environment. If you're in a forested space, something like red or orange or yellow pops off against the dark background really well. Even like a really bright blue works really well in a dark forested environment. Anything like that that's going to cause your subject to be separated from the scene, especially if you're not going to be able to put them in the brightest parts of it very easily, will help your subject just stand out a little bit more, and that's just going to make the images look a little better, because you're not going to lose the person who's in them.

Now, you think about that in reverse. If you have a dark green or a dark blue, and you have somebody in a shadowed forest, they're really gonna blend in with the dark greens and the dark blues of forests, and they will not stand out, and that's gonna cause them to get lost. And the image, you could pose them, you can make them look amazing, you could do all sorts of other things and short of putting off camera flash on them and properly lighting them. You can't do anything about making them pop out in that scene, naturally, or make them look good. Think about the color choices that you are making versus the environment that they are going to be in.

I was on a shoot recently where I asked somebody to bring a bright coat with them so I could pop them off against the trees that we were going to be hiking in, but we had them canoeing first and his canoe was red. This jacket was orange, and I thought, oh, this is gonna look really good. He sat down in the canoe, and that orange clashed so badly with the red of his canoe that we had to get him to take the coat off, and thankfully he had a nice green shirt on underneath that worked really well with the water and with the color of the canoe. But if he hadn't had that, then I don't know what we would have done, because I didn't prep him properly for the color of that canoe. So, think through what the environments are that you're going to be putting these people into. This goes the same for styling them to make sure they're in clothing that matches the situation that you're putting them in.

This goes for like couples having not matching clothing, please but having complimentary clothing. So, don't have person a in the coupling in sweatpants and a hoodie and person B being in like a ballgown That dichotomy is not gonna make those couple's photos look really good. They're gonna end up clashing quite badly, and it's just not gonna make the photo shoot look right. All right. So, wardrobe. Make sure you're dialing in the wardrobe. Not just comfy clothing, and not just the clothing that looks right on the person, but colors that work with the environment.

Tip number two, has to do with clothing too, but it's while you are shooting, make sure that you get people to take everything out of their pockets and make sure that you get them to zip up their pockets. Frequently I see a little cell phone outline in somebody's pocket or I see lipstick or chapstick hanging out in there It's just a little bulge or I see somebody's pocket is gaping open because it's not zipped up and that just ruins the lines in the photo. It ruins really the person's silhouette and it adds a little bit of distraction and It takes away from some of the cleanness that you're going for in photos like this. And so, it's really simple. Get them to take them out of their pockets. Really simple little addition is a little roll top enclosure bag. Mine are typically little waterproof ones just in case it starts raining because they'll be on the outside. that I can just stick any of their objects in and then clip to the outside of my bag. That way we don't lose anything in my bag and people can easily reach in, grab things in and out whenever they need to. But then for sure we're not getting people to shove stuff into their pockets either. And then get them to zip up their pockets, even think to zip up the pockets on cargo pants if you have them. I'm currently wearing ones that have zippers on them. And I can look down and I can see the pocket flaring open whenever I bend my leg, and so if I was just to zip that closed, it would just clean up the line on my leg that little bit more that will just elevate your image a step. And the last thing to look carefully at is the accessories that somebody is wearing.

This is all wardrobe related, but that is where I find a lot of photographers kind of take a step back. They're almost a little bit afraid to step on the toes of their client by maybe insulting what they're wearing or commenting on their body or anything like that. If you do this delicately, you do this right, you're going to make better images for them and they're just going to be happy about that.

Now, accessories can mean everything from the hat that person is wearing to... bracelets, and anklets, and necklaces, and anything like that. And you want to make sure that what they're wearing complements the outfit, complements who they are, and doesn't add an unnecessary distraction or something that doesn't look very good. And one of the things that I find I always have to think about when I take photos of my wife is getting her to take hair ties off of her wrist. She always has a hair tie with her because she has long hair and she wants to be able to tie it up really quickly when we're out. But if I want to take some photos, that hair tie on her wrist, honestly, just doesn't look very good. There's no reason for it to be there. It's not like it's a fashion choice or anything like that. So I always have to remember to get her to take off that hairband. I just wrapped it around my own wrist so that I can just give it right back to her right away. That's a little easy one, that not having that on someone's wrist is just going to make your image look a step higher and a step better. And be very careful and diligent about how they are sitting on somebody as well. So if somebody's wearing a necklace and the clasp has fallen around to the front, that can be a really difficult thing to photoshop, because it can cause the necklace to sit askew a little bit, it can change where it's sitting on the neck, and all of a sudden you have what should just be a quick ten minute edit going into an hour of photoshop. And it's going to extend your time just to fix one little thing. So if you're noticing these little details with the accessories as you're going along, you just tell the person, hey, you just pull the necklace back around, make sure it's sitting straight or the earrings aren't sitting back on a shoulder or tucked into the hair.

Now if it's a fashion accessory choice on that person's part, work with them with it. If it's say like they like to wear flat brimmed ball caps. That's a really difficult one for me because I wear ball caps all the time, but when you're taking photos and you need someone's face in them, they really shadow the face out and they honestly kind of caused the images not to look very good. Because you can't see the person's eyes as easily. And so short of lighting the person's face properly and really working on that, you need to work with that client to understand why they want that hat on and the other need that they have, which is really beautiful and fantastic photos. So make sure you're checking out the accessories somebody is wearing. All those sorts of little tiny details that yes, you probably can Photoshop that out. Not always though, and not easily.

But if you can do it naturally right then and there. It's just gonna look better in your photos, and it's gonna make your job a lot easier so you don't have to look for those little nitpicky things while you're editing. You're also gonna build up trust with that person, and they're going to know that you were paying attention to their needs, you were paying attention to their wants, and nothing but good things can come from them seeing that.

And those are just five really easy things that you can do that can elevate your images quite dramatically, right off the bat. And they're not difficult things to really work on. They're not difficult things to implement. And they really will change the quality of the photos that you're taking.

Now, obviously, we didn't talk too much about some of the really big things that can set you apart, but the idea with this episode is to give you the little things that can make a big, big difference that some of the people who you probably look up to are doing in their photos quite consistently to really elevate their productions. Now, the big things I'm not talking about today are things like off-camera lighting, which can make a massive difference. Things like posing and composition and knowing when to break the rules of composition. Those are all things that you should learn about before focusing on these other little details.

Now, if you've nailed everything else in there, that's where these little pieces are really going to start making a massive difference for you.

Alright, and that is it for today, everybody. Thank you so much for taking this time with me, and for coming on a little bit of an exploration beside one of the most beautiful places in the world, at Moraine Lake. If you ever get the chance to come out here, come see the Valley of the Ten Peaks. It is absolutely stunning. We have a really exciting episode coming up in two weeks.

The next one that's coming out, we are talking to the photographer Katie Goldie. She has worked with some huge brands in the travel industry around the world She's traveled taking photos. She has over 200, 000 followers on Instagram, and she's just a remarkably wonderful human being who has some amazing business advice and for how to deal with working with clients and getting the best possible images that you can with them. So it's going to be a great conversation. We were out for a walk in the rain. This is becoming a theme with me right now.

And I would love to hear from you if you have any other tips that are little things that people can do to implement in their photo shoots or just before their photo shoots that just elevate the production that little bit more and can make a massive difference in delivering a higher quality.

You can find me on Instagram at Robert Massey photography, or you can find me on my website at robertmasseyphotography. ca and reach out to me on there. Thanks for coming on this adventure with me beside Moraine Lake during larch season or I guess fall to most people.

Let's adventure. Bye for now.