People Who Need People

If you want to know how unimportant you are as a photographer work with a model in front of your camera. All of the lighting, staging, composition, right exposure and hair and makeup won't add up to a "hill of beans" if you can't get the model to emote.

The magic is not in the camera it's in the models body posture and face. When working with a model you quickly find out how good you are at communicating your ideas. Can you explain what you are looking for and can the two of you create what you as the photographer have envisioned?

On a recent shoot for Re-Think a "green" designer and manufacturer of shopping bags, I found myself right in the thick of the communications conundrum. I needed to communicate to the models what I wanted to portray in the images. For more than 35 years I have directed for television and film and this background allowed me to move pretty seamlessly into still work.

Every person is an individual and models are no different. How you communicate with them takes on many forms. Some need to be told every little thing you are trying to do and what you want them to do. Others just seem to get it after you explain the product, the environment you are trying to create and the look you want them to achieve. Often the good models will just delight you when they come up with something incredibly inventive. This usually happens if you take the time to explain and context the shoot to them and then give them the freedom to do their thing. There is a limit to this kind of give and take and as a photographer you also have to know when to pull the reins in.

On this shoot for Re-Think I was fortunate to have two very bright. creative and cooperative models. They got the idea right away and became co-producers of the images.

I believe that how the client, the model, and you feel about the shoot ends up on the image. So if everyone is comfortable in the shooting environment, feels that they are making a contribution
to the final result and generally are enjoying the process you are pretty much guaranteed to get a great result.
Hard to believe but the image bellow was shot on a day when it was grey and misting rain while on the right the sun was out in all of it's splendor.

Working with these two models was a real treat.
They were both pleasant, energetic and jumped in to add their ideas to the mix. They were very creative and I think without their input we wouldn't have achieved these images.