- What's up everybody, Peter McKinnon here
welcome back to another tutorial,
this is actually, let me just break this intro real quick,
this is the first time I've ever shot
a tutorial style video in this space.
So, I do realize there' still an echo
we have a company coming on Tuesday
to install sound panels everywhere.
So hopefully it's not too bad,
I've got the mic pretty close
and the background is only going to get better
but I'm just super OCD I had to point that out
however today is not about this office
it's about photographer Brandon Woelfel.
Now if you don't know how this guy is
here's a quick look at this Instagram grid.
I'll just scroll through it a little bit
so you can guys get a taste of
what his style and aesthetic is.
He's got two million on Instagram.
He's an incredible artist, always out there grinding.
He shoots every single day, I wish I could shoot
as much as he does he's an absolute beast.
I had the pleasure to go shoot with him
in Brooklyn this past week with Lauren DIY,
you can check her out on Instagram as well.
It was really cool getting to watch him in his element.
Especially because I followed him on Instagram for so long.
Being able to watch another photographer
that you admire, work, you can learn so much from that.
So, I had my camera out, I shot a whole ton
of B roll, it looks incredible.
And then we went out after, had some coffee,
and talked about how it is that he's
done what he's done, the empire he's created,
the aesthetic that he's created,
and how he's become a successful photographer
making a living doing what he loves.
So, I'm super pumped to say the least.
Ladies and gentlemen, let me introduce you
to Brandon Woelfel.
(rock music)
("Rangers of the Night" by Sebastian Forslund)
♪ Oh oh oh oh ♪
♪ Oh oh oh oh yeah ♪
♪ Oh oh oh oh ♪
♪ Oh oh oh oh yeah ♪
♪ Oh oh oh oh ♪
♪ Oh oh oh oh yeah ♪
♪ Oh oh oh oh ♪
♪ Oh oh oh oh yeah ♪
♪ When I say be full of sounds ♪
♪ I know I know my way around ♪
♪ Oh oh oh oh ♪
♪ We are all the same kind ♪
Okay first things first I mean
how perfect was it that we found
this like super artsy neon room
that YouTube set up for their creators to go through
during their creators summit that we
were able to just shoot this in.
It perfectly suits his style,
it couldn't have been any better
so I'm really, really pumped.
I got to portray this guy in his element visually
with what I do so, super pumped on that
just wanted to get that out of the way.
But we've gone through five tips
to help you get better portraits
not necessarily the same type of photos that he gets
but five things that he does that will
probably help you either finding your own style
or help you further develop your own style
and we're gonna start with lighting portraits.
So as you've noticed, Brandon loves to light his portraits
with neon signs, with external light sources.
He's very rarely shooting in a studio
with an actual forced light.
He's always out in the streets,
in urban settings, finding some kind of
ambient, organic light source
and using that to the best of his advantage.
As an example, we were just walking around at dusk,
as we were walking around he was pointing out
different signs that he's used before in previous shoots.
What surprised me the most is I thought
they would need to be huge, massive neon signs.
But just the smallest little sign that might say
ice cream available here or open 24 hours
he's able to pull so much from that.
Here's an example, I would have walked straight past this,
but he told me this is where he shot these twins
earlier in the week, this is the location,
this is the actual shot that he got from it.
So my mind was completely blown and it really made me
start looking around even more than I already do
for these organic, natural, neon light sources
that are all around us that we otherwise
would probably just walk by.
So tip number one is find those organic light sources,
use them to your advantage, use them to
light, style, and color your portraits.
("Rangers of the Night" by Sebastian Forslund)
♪ Skyline be your lights ♪
Alright tip number two, that would be four,
tip number two is using external accessories
and misc items to enhance your photos.
What do I mean by this?
Brandon is known for using his light prism.
Now you can find these on Amazon,
I'll link them below, they are absolutely incredible.
He handed it to me while we were shooting inside
and the second I put it up to the lens, magic happened.
All these incredible crystallized lighting effects
started dancing across the lens
which just made the footage look so much better
and that's how he's able to achieve different effects
like rainbows or certain flares cutting through the frame
that look so good and that are so iconic to his style.
Now aside using these specific items,
what I find very interesting is that
he's taken an item like this prism
and made it work for him, now he's known for it.
When you think Brandon Woelfel,
you think of that prism, you think of
his color palette, you think of his aesthetic.
And it's all these little things
amalgamated together that make him who he is.
So not only using the prism, but he likes
to use a CD because you can get
the same sort of rainbow reflection.
We were doing that down by the water as the sun set.
So, carrying a bag of these little items
around with you can really help
make those portraits stand out.
When you have more tools in the kit to use.
External misc items to enhance your photos
Amazon, love that.
("Sober Language" by Ooyy)
Point number three is kind of
choosing a time of day to shoot.
Now a lot of people just go and shoot
whenever they can find the time
and I totally understand that, I'm one of those people.
But Brandon specifically, usually likes to go out at dusk
and he shoots all his portraits at the same time of day.
This helps build his style.
This helps create that consistent theme,
that consistent look, the consistent aesthetic
that is his portfolio online.
So he's always shooting at dusk.
So if you wanna make sunset your thing,
if you wanna make dusk your thing,
if you wanna make the whole day your thing
that's cool too but what really helps him
pinpoint that style and lock in a look
if you will, is shooting all those portraits
at the same time of day, every single day.
He's never deviating from that.
Doesn't mean he doesn't shoot photos
if it's not past 8:00 p.m. but that
particular technique is what he uses
to create that constant aesthetic
that is so pleasing and consistent with him as an artist.
It's just like people like Sam Kohler,
you guys know who does amazing video work
here on YouTube and amazing cinematographer and filmmaker,
usually only shoots and sunrise and sunset
if it's midday he doesn't even bother with it
because his footage is gonna look that much better.
This is the same thing here.
Now Brandon also suggests that
if you are uncomfortable shooting at dusk,
maybe just try only shooting at dusk
for the next month and make it a strength.
Just because you're scared of it
or you're not very good at it,
doesn't mean it doesn't exist anymore.
Take that fear, take that thing that's not a strength
and make it a strength so it's just like we said before
one more tool in your toolkit.
("Sober Language" by Ooyy)
Tip number four is posing people.
Now this can be very difficult
because either photographers aren't very comfortable
with telling someone how to pose,
photographers don't know how someone should pose,
or the model is awkward with posing
and they don't know how to pose.
So, it's very difficult to kind of find that
perfect marriage of both artists working together
to get the best possible images.
What I've known, and what I noticed from him,
is Brandon doesn't stop moving,
he doesn't stop changing the frame,
he's constantly changing his orientation.
He's going from vertical to horizontal.
He's moving the model from left to right,
he's having her sit down, stand up,
throw her hair back, walk and look backwards.
He's always moving that subject
through the frame so he has a variety.
If he just took the same portrait head on
over and over and over until he got that perfect shot
there would be no, there would be no photo shoot
it would just be 80 portraits from the same angle.
So even if you're uncomfortable
or you're feeling like you don't know
where to move the model, I would suggest
just doing anything you can to
create some sort of movement.
Stand with your back against the wall,
stand with your side against the wall,
okay put your hand against the wall,
let's come away from the wall,
let's lean in real close to the neon sign,
okay fall back into these bubbles,
touch one of the bubbles in the sky,
let the bubble fall on your hand.
There's constant movement.
So having this constant movement creates variety
and that really helps when you're
going through your selects.
("Sober Language" by Ooyy)
Okay tip number five and this one of Brandon's
like big tip takeaways that really helped with his style.
Is he shoots very underexposed so that he can maintain
a low ISO, shoots in raw, so that he can
bring that into post after the fact
and bring back those shadows and highlights
without getting too much noise
because he shot at a low ISO.
So when you're looking at those shots in camera
you might think to yourself,
I did not expose this properly at all, it is way too dark,
but if you follow Brandon you'll know that he
posts a ton of before and after photos
on his Instagram account almost daily.
And you'll see those before pictures look very dark
but when you tap that button, and it applies his edits,
it comes to life, like I said, magic happens.
And that's by underexposing your portraits in the field
but maintaining that low ISO so you don't get tons of noise,
shooting in raw, and then bringing that back,
the highlights and shadows, in post after the fact.
That's one of the big ways he's able to
achieve this aesthetic all of the time.
Now when you combo that with shooting at dusk,
these post processing tools, thinking about the edit
before you take the shots, moving your model around
so that you get variety, using external misc items
and little things to enhance the photos,
like a prism, and all of those things
wrapped into one photo shoot,
you're gonna have something successful.
You're gonna have something that you like.
And with anything practice makes perfect.
So the more you do it, the better you're going to get.
Now someone like Brandon, like I said,
does it every single day.
He's always out there shooting and that's why he's so good.
That's why he's able to turn around
incredible photos on a daily basis
because he's doing it on a daily basis.
If I haven't gone out to shoot for two weeks
and then I go out with some friends
and try to fire of some bangers
and I come home and I'm like, I didn't get anything good,
well that kinda makes sense because
you haven't been doing it for the last three weeks.
You can't expect to improve if you're not
putting in the work to improve.
If you aren't already following him on Instagram
you should be and that is where I'm gonna end things today.
So, thank you to Brandon Woelfel for letting me
tag along and shoot your awesome photo shoot.
Thank you also to Lauren for letting me tag along
and film this entire photo shoot behind the scenes.
I had so much fun, I can't wait to
shoot with you guys again.
And for everyone watching at home,
use this, be inspired, take that feeling you have right now,
close the internet, and go take some photos.
Peace.
Almost forgot my outro, hit that like button
if you like this video.
Smash it if that's something that you're in to 2018 style,
subscribe if you aren't already,
and I will see you when there's less echo
in this studio.
I'll see you guys in the next video.
Peace.
("Sober Language" by Ooyy)