I’m not really sure why kids still go to college anymore. Literally EVERYTHING you need to know is on the internet. Most of the time, in the form of a YouTube video… and for the last 7 months, I’ve tapped into that wonderful well of knowledge more times than I care to remember. Some people binge watch Netflix, I binge watch Peter McKinnon.

So why, you might be asking, have I had my head buried so deep into my computer screen? Well, because 7 months ago, it would have taken the utmost of my ability to even turn on the damn thing, much less produce anything worthy of people paying me for it.

You see, I was never given any lessons, I never took any classes in high school or college, and I really didn’t have anybody here in Philadelphia to study under. So I did what any standard millennial is expected to do, I turned to the internet… and boy did she deliver! You would not believe the amount of photography tutorials you can find online.

I suppose the place to start is with a simple video on camera settings. There are of course three basic building blocks of photography: aperture, shutter speed, and ISO. The purpose of this blog is certainly not to patronize you by going through what all of these mean… I guess I’m more or less trying to explain where to start if your fresh into the game like I was, but those three settings certainly need to be ingrained in your mind before you start anything.

Alright let’s fast forward here a little bit… say you find a model – or a friend that is willing to go through this undoubtedly awkward first shoot with you – and you are in location ready to shoot. It’s very important that you ease the mood, because most people tense up whenever they’re in front of the camera. For some people, they just have this natural calm aura about them. For people like me, just play music… it usually works ;).

I was extremely lucky for this particular shoot. Brigitte is a great person to be around and pretty much a vet when it comes to the modeling game. I didn’t have to pose her once, which is good because the extent of my knowledge on that subject is confined to this tutorial here. <– it’s actually really good you should watch it. Her natural beauty and amazing instincts made it really easy for me to capture some great shots.

The lighting for this shoot was almost perfect. We got really lucky for that as well, because it had been overcast and cold in Philly for the past week. In fact, I even rescheduled the first shoot because of the gloomy forecast. We managed to get the last two hours of daylight on a sunny fall day. This, of course, is known as golden hour. I used to make fun of my coworker because he had to leave early one day for his engagement pics so they could capture golden hour, now a year later I’m planning my whole day around it. Anyway, the idea is to shoot during times when the sun is less harsh, which means not during the middle of the day. If you do find yourself with a ton of harsh light, try to use a reflector.

After you’ve captured these amazing photos of your gorgeous subject, go ahead and copy them onto your computers hard drive or an external hard drive. Open them in Adobe Lightroom and then my video will take you home from there. I would love to further explain the process via type, however I think the best way to get a full understanding of the process is by watching and doing, not by reading.

My name is Austin Dunhour. I am the Content Director here at Momentum Digital. I love learning and being self-sufficient… after all, I ditched my career in the golf industry about a year ago and I’m currently in the process of becoming the next Ridley Scott… one YouTube tutorial at a time.