Fellow Photographers...could use some advice

JulieLawsonPhotography

One of my Seniors that I photographed last year contacted me about doing taking some photographs for her modeling portfolio. I could use some advice regarding posing, etc. I don't have strobist lighting like you all have. Is there some do's and don'ts when photographing models?

Thanks in advance,

Julie

Nikolai

JulieLawsonPhotography wrote:

One of my Seniors that I photographed last year contacted me about doing taking some photographs for her modeling portfolio. I could use some advice regarding posing, etc. I don't have strobist lighting like you all have. Is there some do's and don'ts when photographing models?

Thanks in advance,

Julie

Welcome to the club!
Modeling photography does have a lot of gotchas and it's defintely not something I would be able to describe in one short post. I do hope to be able to lay down some basics in a two-day workshop, so you can imagine amount of information needed.
One thing I can say though: I have *never* seen a good modeling portfolio made without a good lighting. (Notable exception: nudes in the wild, but I'm not sure your senior is ready for that)
So you may want to consider getting some lights and learning to use them first...

zoomer

I am a member of a model/photographer get together site called Model Mayhem. Check it out, there are tons of examples of models portfolios in there.
Photographing models is like all other facets of photography, there are a million ways to do it, pick the style that suits you.

One thing for sure is you can venture into some sexier more grown up poses than you would for a senior girl photo shoot.

Make sure to ask the model what type of shots she wants, usually they are working on a portfolio steering towards a certain facet of the modeling industry.

Sounds like fun.

JulieLawsonPhotography wrote:

One of my Seniors that I photographed last year contacted me about doing taking some photographs for her modeling portfolio. I could use some advice regarding posing, etc. I don't have strobist lighting like you all have. Is there some do's and don'ts when photographing models?

Thanks in advance,

Julie

Mitchell

Julie, this is very exciting. Congrats!

Model Mayhem can be a good site to browse for some ideas.

If you are looking at trying some good headshots, check out this guy's work:

http://www.headshot-photography.com/portfolio.htm

Nikolai

zoomer wrote:

I am a member of a model/photographer get together site called Model Mayhem. Check it out, there are tons of examples of models portfolios in there.
Photographing models is like all other facets of photography, there are a million ways to do it, pick the style that suits you.

One thing for sure is you can venture into some sexier more grown up poses than you would for a senior girl photo shoot.

Make sure to ask the model what type of shots she wants, usually they are working on a portfolio steering towards a certain facet of the modeling industry.

Sounds like fun.

I respectfully disagree.
While this and other modeling sites (one model place, model brigade, miss online, models/modeling corner, sg, etc.) do indeed provide access to various portfolios, if my own expereince is any indication browsing them doesn't give you much except the red eyes and a headache. You do need to do your own homework. And, as I said, without off-camera lighting the chances to get good quality pictures are pretty slim (that much you can learn from browsing fairly quickly:-)
I also don't agree about immediately jumping into whole "sexier" thing, even though I shoot quite a lot of asrtistic nudes myself. Niether outfits, nor poses should be necessarily sexually provocative to make a good image and make the client happy.
And guess what: asking a n00b model what kida shots she wants is not gonna work either. She simply wouldn't know. I worked with many novice models, most didn't have a slightest idea what they want. "I think I'm pretty, my friends tell me I should do modeling, so here I am", that covers 90% of cases.

Bottom line - there are no books and no tutes one this. Modeling photography requires very solid personal communication skills, scrupulous attention to details, vast knowledge of poses (OP's original question - yeah, some are good, some are bad, but there is no coincise dictionary on that except some basic rules, like "if it bends bend it"), tons of patience and, naturally, good techincal and postprocessing skills to back it all up.
Oh yeah, and did I mention a good set of lights?

Julie, my advise: just start shooting. One year later you would hate what you did now, but if you keep shooting and making notes one your later you'll be a much better photographer :-)

zoomer

Looks like Nikolai and I agree to disagree on this one, no worries.

I definitely agree with the last sentence where he said just get out and start shooting, you will get the feel of it.

JulieLawsonPhotography

Nikolai wrote:

I respectfully disagree.
While this and other modeling sites (one model place, model brigade, miss online, models/modeling corner, sg, etc.) do indeed provide access to various portfolios, if my own expereince is any indication browsing them doesn't give you much except the red eyes and a headache. You do need to do your own homework. And, as I said, without off-camera lighting the chances to get good quality pictures are pretty slim (that much you can learn from browsing fairly quickly:-)
I also don't agree about immediately jumping into whole "sexier" thing, even though I shoot quite a lot of asrtistic nudes myself. Niether outfits, nor poses should be necessarily sexually provocative to make a good image and make the client happy.
And guess what: asking a n00b model what kida shots she wants is not gonna work either. She simply wouldn't know. I worked with many novice models, most didn't have a slightest idea what they want. "I think I'm pretty, my friends tell me I should do modeling, so here I am", that covers 90% of cases.

Bottom line - there are no books and no tutes one this. Modeling photography requires very solid personal communication skills, scrupulous attention to details, vast knowledge of poses (OP's original question - yeah, some are good, some are bad, but there is no coincise dictionary on that except some basic rules, like "if it bends bend it"), tons of patience and, naturally, good techincal and postprocessing skills to back it all up.
Oh yeah, and did I mention a good set of lights? <img src="https://us.v-cdn.net/6029383/emoji/mwink.gif&quot; border="0" alt="" >

Julie, my advise: just start shooting. One year later you would hate what you did now, but if you keep shooting and making notes one your later you'll be a much better photographer :-) <img src="https://us.v-cdn.net/6029383/emoji/thumb.gif&quot; border="0" alt="" > <img src="https://us.v-cdn.net/6029383/emoji/iloveyou.gif&quot; border="0" alt="" >

Thanks to all of you for your time in responding. I kind of figured that I am going to have to do what Nikolai suggested and start shooting. I will look at some photographs of models regarding certain poses to see what I like, but I'll have to see what works and what doesn't look good when I'm shooting. I am going to start saving some of the money I'm going to get this year from shoots/weddings to get some strobist lighting. But honestly, I am clueless about lighting. I look at Nikolai, Jeffreaux and others photographs and when you all start talking snoots etc......I go blank. It's like someone reading stereo instructions to me. I am the type of person that needs someone to show me how to use lights. I'll will do as I do with every shoot and give it 110% and learn from my mistakes. Hopefully she will like what I provide her.

Thanks again all.
Julie

jeffreaux2

One REALLY good place to start.....with her...is with the agency she intends to model with. They can make suggestions as to the type of shots they are looking for and perhaps show examples that their other models have submitted.

Modeling doesn't neccesarily mean "high fashion".

They will be able to point the two of you in the right direction and THEN you will know what types of examples to look for.


Either way...I am sure there are more than a few willing sould here on Dgrin to help you decide what does....and doesnt work later.

I picked up a book recently....
"500 Poses for Photographing Women" (Amherst Media)

It isnt a "how-to" on what poses work for what body type, but rather 500 examples.....headshots....head and shoulders....1/2, 3/4, and full length posed shots in a variety of each......

This particular publication may not be for you, but.....check Amazon.....they may have something particular to models and that type of photography.

Nikolai

JulieLawsonPhotography wrote:

... But honestly, I am clueless about lighting. I look at Nikolai, Jeffreaux and others photographs and when you all start talking snoots etc......I go blank. It's like someone reading stereo instructions to me. I am the type of person that needs someone to show me how to use lights....

Technically speaking, the June enrollment for my Posing The Light workshop is closed, but... I think I can take one more person... Wanna join? It will save you at least a year of trial-and-error mistakes...

JulieLawsonPhotography

Nikolai wrote:

Technically speaking, the June enrollment for my Posing The Light workshop is closed, but... I think I can take one more person... Wanna join? It will save you at least a year of trial-and-error mistakes...

If I had the time and money, I would be there in a heartbeat. Wanna hold one in Indiana?

Ahh such is life, I guess I'll have to learn the through trial and error and asking questions on here.

JulieLawsonPhotography

jeffreaux2 wrote:

One REALLY good place to start.....with her...is with the agency she intends to model with. They can make suggestions as to the type of shots they are looking for and perhaps show examples that their other models have submitted.

Modeling doesn't neccesarily mean "high fashion".

They will be able to point the two of you in the right direction and THEN you will know what types of examples to look for.


Either way...I am sure there are more than a few willing sould here on Dgrin to help you decide what does....and doesnt work later.

I picked up a book recently....
"500 Poses for Photographing Women" (Amherst Media)

It isnt a "how-to" on what poses work for what body type, but rather 500 examples.....headshots....head and shoulders....1/2, 3/4, and full length posed shots in a variety of each......

This particular publication may not be for you, but.....check Amazon.....they may have something particular to models and that type of photography.

I'm not sure what type of agency it is that she is going through. It's out of California though.

I'll have a look around the "community" though and see what I find. It looked to me more of a "Craig's list"/forum type thing. Businesses needing models for various types of ads and such. I will look at the book you suggested though. I'm sure that can help me in a lot of different ways.

Thanks Jeff.

ChatKat

Simple!
Julie,

You can do heatshots with minimal equipment. You don't need a whole studio full of lighting. It's like any other shoot. You can do all outdoors or you can use 8 lights with softboxes, barndoors, snoots, flags and a host of other things with funny names.

What they generally want is a full body shot, maybe a a head and shoulders shot and half or 3/4 body shot with different personality looks.

For light, the easiest is to use a flash with a shoot through umbrella, or a flash with a gel set to fill light. Expose the image well. Have a few outfit changes. Background can be as simple as a plain wall outside, a brick wall or a sheet. Just make sure you expose well, light evenly and they are dressed and made up.

JulieLawsonPhotography

ChatKat wrote:

Julie,

You can do heatshots with minimal equipment. You don't need a whole studio full of lighting. It's like any other shoot. You can do all outdoors or you can use 8 lights with softboxes, barndoors, snoots, flags and a host of other things with funny names.

What they generally want is a full body shot, maybe a a head and shoulders shot and half or 3/4 body shot with different personality looks.

For light, the easiest is to use a flash with a shoot through umbrella, or a flash with a gel set to fill light. Expose the image well. Have a few outfit changes. Background can be as simple as a plain wall outside, a brick wall or a sheet. Just make sure you expose well, light evenly and they are dressed and made up.

Thank you so much Kathy. I sincerely appreciate your advice.