One of the most fun activities in photography is model shoot, especially for guys. It cannot be denied that the models’ captivating beauty and great curvy body can make the photographer lost in their world. Though it seems easy, model shoot has its own challenge like how we direct the model to act certain pose, choices of clothes and tricks on angles so that the models will look more attractive. There are some practical tips which you can apply for model shooting sessions:
– Match their clothes with their makeup. For instance, when they wear gothic clothes, it should be matched well with gothic makeup.
– Choose the right background that suits the mood intended. For example, a flower garden themed background for cute and funny shoots.
– Even the pose should be in accordance with the clothes and mood like when they wear gothic costumes, the poses should be more extreme. On the other hand, when they wear simple clothes, they should not pose strange poses.
– If you want to fix their hair and parts of their clothes, do it politely and ask for their permission first and do not often touch their body.
– If in the beginning of the shooting, you are the one who decides the style and the pose for the shoot, later, you can also tell them to just make their own poses. It will result great photos as well.
– The most common mistakes made by new models in studio are that they often change into poses before they get a command or before the flash lamp is ready to shoot again. Models also tend to look up ignoring the position of the camera which is very low. This will result unsatisfactory photos because the jaws appear prominent and the nostrils wide open looking so ugly.
– For close up shooting, it is best to use Tele lens about 105-200 mm. or for a full-body shoot with soft view of the background, you may use 300-500 mm lens if it is sufficient for the studio.
– For glamorous model shoot, avoid the use of wide angle lens that can distort her figure like nose and chin that appear too big or thighs that look fatter and etc.
– Before shooting, it is best to meet the model first to decide on their clothes and learn about their plus and minus physical points and also to understand their personality to know whether you can build great teamwork with them. Because I often find images of models sent to me where they look son unlike the real them because they have gone through digital imaging processes.
– If the budget can afford it, it will be ideal to hire a makeup artist and a fashion stylist. But if you are limited with your budget, most models today know how to wear makeup well. With little guidance from you on their costumes, reducing and accentuating the character of their face with makeup correction, you will be able to make great works.
– If the model is required to sit down, it is better to ask them sit at the edge of the chair, the butt’s position is semi-hanging so it will be easy to enforce their waist so that the body pose will look elegant.
– If the model poses by showing her hand, the nails should be clean and nice and the hand needs to be in titled position so it will not appear dominant and steals the attention.
– For outdoor shooting, do not hesitate to use “fill in light” with TTL lightning lamp or the built-in one. Give it minus compensation up to 1 EV on the lamp to get more natural photos.
-though captivated by the beauty of the model, do not forget to check the condition of the whole area of aim window to avoid disturbing background or details like tripod’s legs, lamps, lighting crews and telephone’s pole or tree’s branch that can ruin the photo’s composition.
