Not done a photoshoot before?
Most of the time people I photograph clients that haven't done a photoshoot before. This can mean that the subject, you, is often nervous and its the photographers, me, job to over come this! After all if you are nervous or anxious coming into the shoot then we aren’t going to get the best images - and that’s what you’re paying for.
Reference given my Jon.
So, how do we get around putting you at your ease? Well there are various ways I do this. Let me tell you about Jon who I shot with a couple of weeks ago to illustrate the steps I make to put you at easy during our shoot. Jon wants to get into the modelling industry/be an influencer and needed shots for this portfolio.
When Jon contact me online I was able to have an initial chat to find out what the shoot was for and what type of images he wanted. I was able to give advice regarding outdoors / location shoot verses studio and when studio was decided on what type of clothing to bring along.
From our initial discussions I then put together a mood board (I’ve will talked about these in other blogs) to show example images of looks / feel of pictures I thought we could go for. The idea isn’t that we are going replicate this, more this is the look/feel that I’m going for. This is done so I know that i’m going to deliver the sort of shots you are after. For Jon this was mainly fashion/underwear shots. Some were nice light shots and then more dark / contrasty images. Jon came back with some other type of shots he wanted to do, so added this in as well. Once completed he knew what we were going to shoot and i knew what he was after.
The day before the shoot I contacted Jon to ensure everything was ok for the next day. We confirmed he had all the clothing needed, confirmed the time and location to meet. On the day of the shoot I checked all my gear in the morning to ensure all was working as expected - once he arrived I showed him to the studio. I explained what the different studio lights were for, and how they would change the image produced. Then we went through the clothing he had brought along and made a rough plan of the order we would shoot in and relevant clothing / lighting changes. So…i asked him to change into the first set of clothes, and went and made the all important cup of tea while he got ready in the en-suit.
Once we were both ready I explained I’d show him/or direct him into the pose, also showing him a similar shot from the mood board we originally did. So I stood in front of the camera and did the pose I was after (sometime strike a completely bizarre pose to lighten the mood or get a laugh), or ask him to tilt the head a bit, move left arm etc. Once we’ve done this a couple of times you’ll get used to it (I promise). Also I like to play music during the shoot as there’s nothing worse the silence! I also started chatting about the week i’d had, asked him about his and then get onto other topics - this all helps to get both parties relaxed so we get the best results from the shoot. Also throughout the photoshoot I show Jon the images from the back of the camera. This is a great tool and he can then see how he’s looking and give him faith that I know what I’m doing and we are getting the results he wants! I knew Jon was relaxed and enjoying the shoot as he started to suggest poses to me, which i love as it gets the shoot feeling far more relaxed and we get some great concepts!
This is the way I work and I think gets good results. I’m sure this will develop over time but rest assured your photographer knows you’re going to be nervous and unsure or anxious on your first shoot. Its part of their job to know this and should have ways to get your relaxed so that your images look amazing! Here are a few of the images we got on Jon first shoot - not bad eh!
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Until next time,
Bye!