On Thursday 17th January we had a guest model called Liam come into the studio to pose whilst I practised for the first time using the LED panels kit and gels. This was the first time in the studio I had worked with who I didn't know and it was really exciting.
Liam was really good to work with as he took direction well and happily did everything I asked of him. He also shared his own ideas for poses which I think helped me to be more creative as we could keep bouncing ideas of each other until we achieved a professional looking image.
As he was a visitor into the college and not a professional model I thought it was important to make him feel welcome and comfortable in front of the camera so the photos were more relaxed and he didn't look stiff. Because of this I made sure to remind him when shooting that he was doing a good job and I frequently showed him any good photos I had captured so he could see for himself. I think this definitely helped him feel more relaxed in front of the camera as towards the end of the shoot, his facial expressions looked a lot more relaxed and he embraced emotions I gave him to portray such as serious or stern.
This demonstrated to me that it is important to make your models feel comfortable in front of the camera as this is what will bring out the best in them. I think you need to make sure to communicate that they're doing well, or that your getting the effect you want so that the model doesn't feel silly or uncomfortable when posing as this can often show in facial expressions.
After some minor editing, I selected a couple of my favourite images to send to Liam by email and I also used this opportunity to hank him for his time and express how much I enjoyed working with him.
Below are the finished images I sent.
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