Top Tips When Working with Models Part 1

Hi my name is John Tisbury, and I'm Joceline Brook-Hamilton. Joceline and I are here today to talk to you about working with models. We thought it'd be a good idea to talk about what works well from both our perspectives, both as a photographer, and obviously Joceline from model's perspective. So the first thing we're going to chat about is discussing ideas. What I mean by that is, when I book Joceline for a shoot, I'll probably have a list of some of the things I want to shoot, it might be a rough list of topic headings, or ideas, or might be even a little bit more fully formed. But before I'd do anything and start the shoot I'll sit down with Joceline and we'll work our way through them. So discuss them. That works well for me but I also wanted to get some Joceline's perspective on that. Why is that useful for her? Yeah, it is really useful either for people to send me some of their ideas by email before the shoot, or on the day before we start shooting. I think it just gives you a little bit of time to get into gear really because in the absence of being given any direction I'll probably fall into sort of default styling, default poses, and it's really nice just to have a little bit of time to understand where we're going with the shoot because then I can tailor what I do for you to fit in with what we're going to hopefully produce. Okay and that's I guess that's also useful adding to that is that two heads are better than one in our in a lot of cases so you may have some sort of initial ideas of how you want a particular things shot or framed, but your model will also add their ideas in terms of, okay well we could do this, or we could do that. And it helps with that sort of discussion. Yes it does, doesn't it, that's true. That hopefully your idea will give me an idea of something I've maybe got in my modelling bag that we can use for that, and maybe that will give you a bit of an additional idea that we can build on. I guess collaborations always gets better results. Okay, so that's one top tip discussing ideas. The next one, I suppose is sort of linked to that, and that's around giving feedback. And while you're shooting I'm always giving feedback to the model in terms of how they're posing, is it the type of thing that I want, is it the right shot the right feel, the right sort of atmosphere ,and for me I find I sort of do that naturally. I don't really think about it it's sort of a constant chatter I guess in the background which sort of works for me. As a photographer, it's a bit of sort of self-confidence speak if you like, but also thinking about it from a model's perspective because they are sort of a bit distant, they can't really see you as a photographer because generally you've got camera in front of your face, and it's difficult to see that the facial expression from the photographer. So Joceline from your perspective, how important is that feedback? Hmm As a professional model I am used to being able to pose without any feedback, but I think it's always preferable. A lot of photographers, especially when they're starting out, they can be very self-conscious about, I guess sounding silly, or I don't maybe even pervy so they tend to get quite quiet but just being told that you're posing along the right lines can give you so much confidence as a model to carry on and maybe take some risks with what you do I think in a very silent environment I would tend to become more conservative with my pose and do stuff that's quite safe that I know will work. Whereas as soon as I get feedback of what the photographer's liking, it helps me tailor what I do to suit the photographer. Okay that's good good good points good feedback there. See what I did there? Amazing! Laughter. And linked with that is the review of images. When I've done a set-up so something new taking some shots, I'll then take the back the camera and sit with the model, stand on the model, and then just to review the images. It's not like a full-blown half-hour critique of each image it is a quick review through the images not only from a point of view is that the model can then see what the lighting is is like, what works, and what doesn't work. But quite often models will point out to me ooh I didn't do that very well and stuff like that, so that that works very well from my perspective that review and that constant review as we work through, through the shoot. How does that work from your perspective Joss? It's so valuable when photographers just give me the opportunity to see some of the images as you said I don't need to see all of them, in fact it's probably best not to show me all of them, because I want to do the job for you. But just having an idea of what the light is doing because it's very hard to judge from the model's perspective. I often can't tell what the lights gonna be doing and some poses are going to work with specific lights so much better than others and it gives me a lot of confidence to see what's working because again then I can continue to tailor what I do to suit what we're shooting and I love that when people do it. I understand photographers might not always feel comfortable doing it because they're worried about being judged but I find it so helpful and I think that most of the time models are just like glad to see so that they can work better with you they won't be looking at your pictures going 'oh well I don't think that's very good' they won't be doing that. They'll just be thinking oh thank goodness right now I know what I should be doing. Which is lovely. And it gives you an opportunity as well I guess, as a photographer and model, to look at those images and say we didn't do that very well and let's have a reshoot of that because the light isn't quite right or my pose is a bit off. And also it's a great opportunity for me to hear you telling me what you're appreciating about it because then that tells me what to do more off, which is fabulous. Bonus tip here, in my studio I've got two mirrors and we're actually considering looking at them in the moment. 'It's lovely' and they are really really useful they are 3 foot by 6 foot, from a dance studio actually. I put them at the back there so that allows the model to glance at those images and will adjust their pose. 'I interrupted you, sorry'. It's so rare for photographers to have that in their studio, and it's so useful it's amazing, it makes a massive difference because even if you don't show me the shots I've got a much better idea of what's happening, I appreciate it. I guess it is a lot down to your lighting style, if you have a very flat wide lighting style then it's probably less critical. I shoot a very narrow lighting pattern which creates a lot of shadows and those shadows need to fall in the right places, as obviously as the light does, so the mirror, and the review really helps that for me too to make sure I get any of the images that I want. And obviously gives that feedback to the model you are working with as well. The next one we want to chat about is you know flogging a dead horse if you like. If you have an idea, and you know we've all had them, I have them, I think this will be brilliant. In your mind's eye it comes across as there's gonna be that the best thing about a shot, but when you actually start doing it, it's just not coming together. Either you're not explaining yourself very well, so that's not coming across to the model the sort of thing that you want, or the setup isn't right, the lighting isn't right. Whatever aspect of it is, I find the best thing is just to can it. If it's not working just draw a line under it and move on. There's no sort of loss of face by having to just keep going at it until one of you either you know, falls over with exasperation, or just walks out from boredom. Just stop it and move on, have that confidence to draw the line under it and and say it's not working let's can it. And then come back to it if you need to, it might be after 3 or 4 other sets that you come back to it, or with a different model it works, so you know don't necessarily bin the idea completely, but if it's not working pull the plug on it basically. I'd certainly agree with that. It can be curiously draining to carry on trying to do something that's not working very well because you'll tend to blame yourself, probably the photographer blame himself, the model blame herself. and it's so energising to just dump it, move on to something that you can make work, and as you say you can always come back to it maybe when you've had a bit more time to think through how to make it work. Hmmm good thoughts. Another one which I tend to find works well for me, is that if I'm after a specific shot or a specific pose and I'm not brilliant at giving direction and micro directing people but I know it's something that isn't quite right. So what I tend to do is I'll take a photograph of that shot, or that pose, and then break the session. Say okay can we just have a chat about this image, this is the image on the back here, I don't quite like this bit. I find that's a lot easier than just breaking it and saying oh no can you just move this a bit move that a bit, arm down, up a bit and try and micro pose from one viewpoint as you were. It's very much easier if you've taken the photograph then review it together and then get back to it and I always find that's what kick-starts the session back off again and we normally grab the image that I'm looking for. That can be such a quick fix as well can't it? Yeah very much so. It's the old adage, I guess of a picture paints a thousand words isn't it.