So, we’ve turn the body at 45 degrees, simple enough. I always start with the shoulders where the shoulders going to be, there going to be 45. I want to drop this shoulder a little bit. I want to bring her elbows out Martina a little bit because this is a head and shoulder portrait. Head and shoulder means I’m kind of creating a little base of the composition.

So I’ve got it pose, now I’m going to light it. That light shadow going side ways meaning the lights too low. Lights up a little higher and I can see a beautiful loop shadow right there. My lighting is good. Sometimes what I’ll do is I might say Martina, turn your face to the right little, turn your face to the left a little bit. Come back to me a little bit. I’m adjusting my light without touching it. I’m having Martina move to put the shadow right where I wanted.

And then I can move my camera with her so that my camera position for face is precise. For all my head and shoulder portraits, the camera height is just above eye level, okay. Let me show something to you really fun. Can you stand up real quick for me and stand right in the middle of that lazy Susan. Put your right toe to me and now if I’m doing a full length of Martina, what’s camera height, its right the navel because I’m showing head to toe.

There's camera height for a full length. If I’m doing a three quarter which is from the knee to the top of the head, camera height right at the bust. If I’m doing the head and shoulder, camera height is at the neck. If I’m doing a close-up portrait which is were I’m at now for this portrait my camera is just above eye level.

If I don’t have an adjustable posing tool with Martina’s height, I’m going to be on a six foot ladder to take a close-up portrait. That’s why I’m going to use adjustable posing tools like this. Have a sit. But that illustration is very neat, for length I’m low, as I get closer as I keep getting closer to the subject my camera keeps coming up. When I get to the close-up I’m right above eye level and when I do the profile I drop back down to separation between the chin and the shoulder.

These things take years to learn and I’m laying them right out to you on this DVD. Just practice, practice, practice, and practice on with your friends not on your clients. You know when it’s time to work with your clients, go in there and boldness of attack know what you’re doing, do a great job, practice with your friends.

Okay, here we go. So if the lights over here Martina you’re going to turn your knees this way and cross you right over your left. Alright perfect. Again, I’m going to lean you forward, she doesn’t even want me to touch her guys, you see that, she’s doing anything I ask her to do, right there. She’s posed, I light it, chin down a little bit the light’s there.

Where do I refine it from? My eyes glued to the camera. Now, look right at me Martina. Good, good, good! Your nose to the left of dash, right there. Perfect portrait. Hint to the smile in your eyes, chin up a little bit, right there, eyes here. A lot of things just happen real fast, relax right there.

Number one, I ask her for a hint of a smile in the eyes. I don’t want a big toothy grin. In fact show me a big grin Martina, teeth, right there, just a little smile right there and your eyes here. Good, so that’s smile going to get all, so I’m just going to get a hint of a smile. When you look in the lens there. Great!

Now, what I want you do is look in my hands right here, right there. Chin up a dash, yes, chin down a little, take the top of your head to the right, yes right there. Yes! Yes! Great! Now, let me talk about a tripod. Why do I love working on a tripod? I’ll tell you. In a scrubs go up, you can hand hold all this portrait and people get lazy. Let me think, why don’t want to carry a tripod? I work hand held. When you work hand held and let’s say there’s one little hair out of place and you want to go in and fix that hair. You got to come back and recompose the whole picture.

If you’re working on your tripod, you can jump in there, take that hair out of the way and your composition is still set so you don’t have to recompose your picture. Don’t ever go anywhere without a tripod. So, how do I know which way to tip the camera? Well, here’s the way I know there’s a lot of little tricks to this. I use to remember is that if she’s leaning this way, I tip my camera that way to increase the lean.

Martina would say play, just tip the camera towards the higher shoulder and you’ll make it higher. So Martina’s high shoulder is her right shoulder. So, I’m going to tip my camera towards the higher shoulder, but guest what? When I tip the camera like that she’s not going to look good unless she tips her head like this. Yes, now if you look at her over there, she looks very awkward. If you look at back of my camera, she looks fantastic and let’s compare those picture before the tip and after the tip.