© 2008 Melissa Rodwell Photography LLC.
Models who don’t have much experience in front of the camera need special attention when you put them in front of yours. After so many years experience shooting, sometimes I find it difficult now when I get a girl who’s new and inexperienced. So maybe I’m learning here myself, by writing this blog. It can be frustrating at first, when you get a girl who’s unfamiliar with her body and insecure as well. I don’t adhere to the philosophy of talking to them while they’re getting their hair and make up done. For one, this distracts the hair and make up artist. Instead, I watch them carefully. I look for their overall sense of being. How they hold themselves, if they are chatty with the hair stylist or if they’re shy and difficult to break through. I look for their body posture, they’re overall presence. It’s a bit like being a detective. Or even a psychologist.
When I get them in front of my camera in the beginning, I warm them up by being friendly but not overly fake. I want them to know that my praises are genuine and not over the top. I have to remember that new girls to need a lot of praise. For the most part now, when I shoot, the models are experienced. It’s easier for me because I don’t have to do a lot of coaxing or even coaching. They follow my few directions and it’s onward to a fabulous shoot. But new girls don’t know how to emote, for the most part. And they don’t know how to pose. They are unfamiliar with their bodies, making it tough for them to exude confidence. I usually warm up by shooting a few “test” images so I can feel them out and see where their strengths and weaknesses are. I am not a mouthy photographer. I don’t yell out things like, “oh baby, that’s hot!” or “oh wow, give it to me baby”. Some girls need that, I suppose. To me it just feels cheesy. I feel it’s overkill to tell them every time the shutter clicks how amazing they are. But for some new girls, it’s almost required. So I have to relent and shout out a few of those typical lines. I forget I have to, and I’m quickly reminded to do so when they’re not warmed up after the first 100 pictures.
I have to admit that most of the time I have to get on the cyc and show them a few poses. Then I start doing it in front of them when I have my camera up to my eye, making it a hilarious but effective showcase. They follow my lead eventually and we can get on with making a great fashion shoot.
Music helps. Laughter helps. Making things light and simple, not overly tense helps. After all, we have to remember it’s a fashion shoot, not Supreme Court. Girls look better and move better when they’re relaxed and at ease. I’m not a tyrant on my sets so I think this generally helps the nervous girls relax after a few shots.
The shot above of Monet Mazur was taken when she was a mere 16 years old and just starting out as a Ford New Faces model. Monet has gone on in her career to become an accomplished actress with roles in Johnny Depp’s “Blow” and “Stoned”, where she played famed fashion icon and rock wife, Anita Pallenberg. I had shot Monet a few times before we did this shoot together and I noticed that Monet worked best when she was given a role to work with. Having her walk and move around worked better than standing on a seamless and posing. So I took her out to the hills in Malibu and we just played. The results were so magnificent that I did my very gallery exhibit with the 16 images we got from our one day shoot.
Some new girls just “have it” and they are a breeze to work with. Other girls you need to fish out they’re strong suits and show them a lot of moves. And at the end of the day, you have to remember that even Kate Moss had her first test shoots. Pictured below:
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I love this post…very interesting to read the behind the scenes stuff on working with your models. It would be interesting to read your perspectives on both the differences and similiarities between working with women and men models – that’s a hint on satisfying my own selfish desires
– I look forward to more posts describing the “behind-the-scene” of the scene. By the way, I love your photos of Monet, and for anyone else looking for more, there’s more on Melissa’s myspace page.
Cheers! and keep on posting…
Yes! That’s a great idea about the differences in shooting women and men. And one that I would LOVE to get into! Thanks for the comment, John!
It’s even cheesier if the male photog says that type of thing…
Amen to that! Lol…..
I liked this post, what I think was missed was with the lack of confidence that new models have it sometimes adds to the session for example if you are shooting informal portraits, it shows the subjects personality.
Other than that it was spot on.
This is a useful post! I’m studying photography at college now and we’re doing a module on fashion photography. For someone who has previously only shot people as they’ve accidently stumbled into my landscape images, any help on this subject is great help and this has given me a few ideas. Look forward to the next post!
I’m not a professional as others, but I think its safe to say I can relate to using girls that have never modeled before and this was a great post! I get incredibly frustrated when I give them even the simplest instruction and they either are too afraid to go all out and do it for me, or they have no idea what I’m saying. But again, thanks for the post.
I work with alot of new models, as i am just a student and work mainly on a TF* basis.. because i want to build up the experience. I find it easiest having a bit of a chat and a laugh with them to get them relaxed. I still find this blog really helpful though. As strange as it sounds.. i’d like to see tips on working with pro models, since i’d probably be the nervous one!
Thanks though, it’s good to see how other photographers go about working with new models.
I agree about getting new models warmed up and relaxed. I often have better photos toward the end of a shoot with new models. And with experienced models, you can basically just say “go” and they pose and look fabulous.
And sometimes the stupid comments you make to encourage a model, like the Austin Powers “Yeah, baby, yeah!” really helps because it is silly and lightens the mood. And as a guy, if you demonstrate poses for a female model, you look like an idiot so that also helps relax people.
Being kind of shy myself, the interaction with the model to me is the most difficult part of a photoshoot. I can deal with the ambient, the lighting, the exposure and the framing but being able to interact with your subject in a useful way is an art in itself.
I’d like to hear your take about shooting people that…don’t want to be there in the first place…I know that probably in your environment it never happens but it happened to me and I can tell you that it’s hard.
Melissa, I think you’ve covered just about every angle here. Over the last three years I’ve been shooting portfolios for newbie models on behalf of a small local model agency. I never think ‘local’ and my mission was to make these people (mostly girls) look like they were national quality in about four shoots. If I was lucky, this happened towards the end of the first shoot.
I find it best to work from the person outwards. You will never make a shy seventeen year old to behave like Ruby Wax unless you get them to adapt a personna. If they’re acting a part or feeling an emotion then that will feed through into the shot. Body language coupled with facial expression is everything and through this usually comes confidence.
Above all establish honourable intentions up front. This industry is littered with the dirty raincoat brigade who spoil it for the rest of us. All the ‘wow baby, you’re hot’ stuff stinks but I know of famous snappers who treat their models very badly and still seem to get great results – I suppose there’s an exception to every rule.
The best of the agency girls come back now and again for shoots just for fun – ‘TFCD’. I love to see their development and usually get some great shots for my book.
Thanks for the tips, very helpful.
Ive had much problems with beginning models but im sure this info will help
Thanks
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A really interesting report about working with new models. A thank to all, who are engaged in the fashion industry.
Your blog is interesting! Keep up the good work!
Thanks for the awesome post, it helped me out a lot.
Melissa, I liked it as much as I translated the post into Russian and published the translation on Fashionbank.ru – one of fashion industry resource of Russia. I find it useful for me personally as well. Thank you!
Nice article..its very useful for those who are studying photography.