Just thinking

A few days ago had a photography session with a friend of me. I always

found her really attractive, beautiful, sometimes shocking, so I asked

her to be my model for photography.

 

Since it was her "real" act she was really shy in the first hour (it

is allrite, I expected it), so I used my digital camera only. Later

she become more comfotrable, I picked up my film camera. Nothing unusual.

 

The surprise come after I picked up the contacts and first sighted the

pictures. She was not beautiful. Ok, was not ugly or something but all

delicate feautres of her was missing. Large nose, pale skin, bad pose

(strained, tense), thin mouth and so on. I have about 5 shots of her

which are acceptable (I made 10x15 prints only, it would be just waste

money to make it larger).

 

I understand the first attempt being model is always really difficult,

it is all right. But the turn from a beautiful gir to an average in

the picures was surprising. She has strong personality and it is fakes

the human eyes but not the camera. Hoever those 5 shots are showing

something about her.

 

Question? I think I have no one. But would happy to hear is someone

had same or opposite experiences, how to deal this problem, what is

the solution... or basically, how to find a right modell?

A photograph can make ANYBODY look unattractive. It's your job as photographer to create the image you visualise using lighting, angles, shadows, pose, props, distance etc.

I would suggest rethinking the shoot and try to create the visualisation you have of this person.

 

Regards

You know the saying, there are no frigid girls, just bad lovers ;^)

 

Making pictures of someone you find attractive (or ugly) is a difficult, because the camera doesn't feel what you feel. Especially in the studio, where you are in charge of everything, hence take all the glory for success but all the responsibility for screwing up.

 

My ex-GF was like this : I always wanted to take pictures of her but when there was a camera in sight she'd do the ugly face.

 

I'd suggest to use stealth and cunning.

 

We're in summer. Organize a barbecue party in some garden and invite her friends and your friends. Before everyone arrives set the table in a place with good lighting, use an umbrella to avoid bad-looking direct sunlight, the white tablecloth will do as a reflector, choose for her the seat with best lighting.

 

There will be a camera on a little table nearby, but so what, everyone knows you're into this. Don't take out the huge lens, the big flash or anything ; a plain, unobtrusive 50 or 85mm without a huge lens shade will do.

 

Then have fun with your friends and sneak in some candids of everyone and especially of her. She might get shy when posing, but talking to friends and laughing she should be natural.

 

Don't always have the camera in your hand. Take a few snaps, put it back on a chair, have a few drinks, etc. Don't look like the papparazzi, just have fun !

 

You should also watch her and watch her expressions, what it is that you like and what makes a good photo or a bad one...

 

Also everyone looks a lot better outside having fun in the sun than getting bored in a studio.

 

Have fun, do funky camera angles, use your wideangle too...

Fisher-- I cut my teeth in studio photography taking pictures of beginning models for their portfolios. There were times when a woman who looked merely decent in real life looked stunnng when their features were compressed into two dimensions, and other cases when heartbreakingly beautiful girls didn't look nearly as good on film. The same was true of men-- some of the most dweeby guys in real life can look like studs on camera.

 

There are several factors at work in this phenominon:

 

1. Three dimensional featurs being compressed into two dimensions. Your brain and eye read in 3-d, but the camera does not. This can work for or against.

 

2. The camera stops time. The way someone moves has a lot to do with their attractiveness. This is one reason why a lot of actors hate having still shots done-- they have trained for years in the art of movement, and it intimidates them when they can't use that in front of a camera.

 

3. As the movement is frozen, particularities of the features become evident. The coloring of the nose can make it look more prominent, the droop of the eyes can make them far less engaging. A still image is like a microscope looking at a moment in time, and few people's looks can stand being held up to a microscope.

 

Or, on the side of the photographer or equipment:

 

A. Lighting, as far as I am concerned, is the most important factor in making someone look good. A complete rundown of the problems and solutions is far beyond the scope of this post, however, but there are times I can move a light six inches and get a totally different effect on a subject.

 

B. Lens choice is critical. Fill a frame with someone's face using a wide-angle lens, and no doubt they're going to look like Jimmy Durante. Classical portrait technique states that most faces look best at the perspective you'll get from six feet away, but sometimes longer is better. If the person has a flat face, then six feet is often good. But if they have a "deep" face -- lots of distance between the nose and the ears, backset eyes-- then I find that longer lenses can render a better effect.

 

C. Get a great makeup artist. There are times when a good makeup artist can do such an incredible job that the model doesn't even recognize herself in the mirror. Now, these days I don't necessarily view that as a good thing, as what you end up taking pictures of is the makeup artist's paint more than anything else, but sometimes it can be the way to go. At any rate, great makeup can even out the model's skin tones and accent wonderful features, even when used subtly.

 

Best regards, and happy shooting. -BC-

Short answer: improve yourself as a photographer.

 

It's not the model's responsibility to look attractive, it's the photographer's job to make the model look attractive (or whatever is the quality wanted in the photos). The photographer should notice ugly poses and tense expressions and help the model out of them by directing. He should choose the lighting, angles and poses that take advantage of the model's personal features.

 

Keep trying. Study photographic lighting. In the shoot assume the role of a film director. Don't be disappointed if the first results aren't stunning.

If you put most people w/absolutely no drama training up on stage, in a play, they will stiffen up, take those same people and tell them you're going to play a 'practical joke' on a friend, and they will transform into masters of the improv/impromptu, w/good enough performances to fool the 'butt' of the joke.........................Same people.

 

When you shoot, particularly in a studio, you're dealing w/gear that's familiar to you, and you're tuned in to whatever you want to shoot, someone else sees a bunch of cables, 'strange' gizmos going off, and other things, and they're not fully comfortable with all this strange stuff, they're anything but relaxed, they certainly not in touch w/themselves.

 

Actors practice getting in touch w/their bodies, w/sense memory classes, they practice being someone or something which hones their awareness of what their body is doing when they feel this mood, or that emotion, they learn a way of emoting that goes beyond the phony smile, the stiff pose, and/or the awkward look, they go to drama classes that among other things teaches them when they've gone overboard/melodramatic/over the top with something. So that when you tell an actor to smile, a good actor doesn't just make the mechanical motion of effecting a 'say cheeze' kind of smile, he/she considers the momemnt, comes up with some emotional experience, recocks, and generates the smile. You can tell actors and entertainers to do specific things, and they will do them with conviction and feelings, they're trained to do that, in front of anybody, anywhere.

 

You can't tell the same things to other folks, tell these folks to 'smile', and often as not, they simply give you a forced and mechanical smile, tell them to pose this way or that, and you'll end up with a human being trying to imitate a statue, so you have to get them to relax, if you're a people person w/people skills and you can make people relax, and make them smile, this will come EZ, if you're not, it will be more difficult.

 

When I shoot a non actor/entertainer, I tell them that this is going to be just like 'daydreaming', when you think about a mood, a place, and then you catch yourself in the act of doing that, and you become aware of this big wide grin on your face or look of concern, or someone else 'snaps you out of it' and you again realize you've been smiling/looking serious and so forth....................and I tell them that I'm going to talk about certain sitiuations and feelings and that I want them to focus in on just that feeling, that mood, or that situation as if they were actually there and not here.

 

I did a brochure for a gentleman who owns a company that manages Doctors offices, he wanted his portrait on the front of the brochure, he said he wanted a portrait of himself projecting the qualities that would make people feel they could trust him. He was a particularly quick learner when we discussed the moods and feelings and how I wanted him to focus on them.

 

At the start of the shoot, I told him to turn his back to camera and just focus in on what I'm describing, I told him to forget where he actually was and to just focus in on the situation that I'm describing, I told him to imagine sitting w/the closest friend in his life, a friend who's just told him that he has terminal cancer, I told him that after the initial shock, that I wanted him in his fighting mode, that in a few seconds I was going to ask him to turn around and look straight into the lens as if the lens was his best friend in trouble, and as he looked into the lens, to focus in on the thought of conveying to his friend w/his eyes that he was not alone, and that they were going to fight this together, and then I told him to turn around and look straight into the lens, as if he was looking straight into friends eyes with an expression that said 'you and I are going to beat this together'.....'now just think of that and look straight into the lens and past it on into nothingness,'.............I was able to get a convincing look, we used it on the brochure and he was happy with it.

 

I took this approach this time, but most of the time it isn't as serious as the above scenario, but then he seemed desparate in his need for his image to project a look people could trust,.................... mostly I pick lighthearted and positive scenarios, many people pick up the business of emoting quite quickly as opposed to imitating statues, w/unconvincing and forced looks/poses.

 

This was an important job for me, and I went the serious and dramatic approach, this might've turned him off, and it was certainly high risk, if someone close to him actually did have cancer, this might've backfired, but this gentleman was on a roll, picked up quickly what I was doing, and gave me something legit. As things relax, and a client picks up on what I'm doing, I will tell the client to think of something and emphasize that they NOT tell me what it is, and they often as not come up with something interesting.

 

You gotta get people relaxed, once they're relaxed you need to get them to act like their natural selves, the way they act w/everybody else, and most important of all, they have to learn to trust you.

 

You need to do tests w/your muse, a lot of tests, the fact that she looks beautiful to you, and is will to work w/you has won half the battle, but you'll still have to work at this, your eye can read a contrast ratio of 1 million to one, she isn't going to look the same on film as she looks to you, nobody does, I hope this helps......good luck.

 

 

http://www.ephotozine.com/techniques/viewtechnique.cfm?recid=106

 

Andreas

Thank you all for the answers.

 

A few more day of thinking led me to the following result:

- the ligthing was bad. there were shadows emphasizing her strong charater

- the make-up was done by her, it was also a bad choiche

- the lens was okay I had good shots with my 70-200

- and something is more important, the atmosphere of the photographing was far from the perfect probably due the first time panick.

 

I looking forward for the next one.

what you need is: A STYLIST

A stylist to tell me how to see the modell? Or a stlyst whom I tell how I would like to see the modell?