Fading Smiles

LarissaPhotography · Feb 20, 2009

Have you guys noticed that as a day goes on, the smiles tend to get more fake? We especially see this at weddings where it's an all day event. Any suggestions on how to keep the smiles real?

Jaszek · Feb 20, 2009

Alcohol

. Works for me. I'm alwys smiling when Im drunk lol

bhop · Feb 20, 2009

All my smiles at weddings are fake.. i'd rather be doing just about anything than attending a wedding..

..oops.. I guess that wasn't really an answer.

craig · Feb 20, 2009

Why does everyone need to be smiling all the time? How can YOU creatively express joy in your photos? Maybe it's hand holding, Maybe walking into a sunset. This is one of those questions that depends on the photographer. No easy answers.

Love & Bass

AlexColeman · Feb 20, 2009

Not an east question to answer. Go for those HSs early, then the abstract as the night progresses.

fwellers · Feb 21, 2009

I've noticed that these days many ( more and more it seems ), excellent portrait type pictures don't have smiles. It seems smiling for the camera was something that used to be a rule, but now isn't so much in vogue.

I am glad of that. I love more serious looking faces. It's a big challenge for me to try and pose people without the smiles, but I think there is much much more creativity to be exploited in a non-smiling portrait.

AlexColeman · Feb 21, 2009

Smiling is far too stereotypical for my portrait style. I like the creative shots, not always the "smile and done".

JerryPH · Feb 21, 2009

I just spent the last 9 hours in a studio doing a little over 650 pictures with 11 models... talk about a marathon!

Smiles... if the model has a pretty one, I expolit it, but personally, I never take just 1 shot of someone and then move on, so that means I play with expressions, emotions and poses. I work the model until I am satisfied that I have exploited the best she can offer me.

One thing that I did note, is that if I do ask for, or try to make them smile, its right from the start within the first 60 seconds. For me, this is the ice breaker and it tells me one of 2 very important things right from the get go... either she is nervous and needs my guidance to get comfy or she is comfortable and ready to go, in which case, I do not guide them so much as just point out general directions and they take it from there and I control them by letting them know how well I like what they are doing. Experienced models do not want nor need to be hand-held from pose to pose, where-as a new model often lets you know and asks for precise guidance.

Another point... everyone needs a warmup... no one just walks up to a model and takes the best shot of the set from the first frame. The model needs a warmup to get into the flow and "sync" with my feedback and I need a warmup so that I can spot what the model's better assets, moves and poses are and then focus on bringing those assets out on my photographs. This may sound strange, but before starting a shoot, I take anywhere from 10-30 seconds where I drop the camera and just look closely at the model, sometimes asking them to turn for me before starting.

With ONE model today, we were in a grove and both having a blast, she said "ok what next", no warning, out of the bue I said "give me an orgasm"... she stopped and looked and said "that would take me about 20 minutes and I'd need your help...". We both cracked up and the shoot went on. :lol:

A small aside... today for the first time I had the chance to use all kinds of equipment from softboxes, octaboxes, 6-foot umbrellas, Plus II and MultiMax Pocket Wizards and all ProFoto heads ranging from 600 to 2400 W/s. Want to know something? I loved it, all, but there is an intimacy with the model that I lacked when I needed F/16 on a 70-200 set to 200mm and shutter speeds of 1/200th and wanting full body shots from waaaaaaaay far back.

It was educational and super-fun, but the moment I went back to battery powered strobes near the end of the day, I felt like I'd had come home. This is not to say one is better than the other, it's just that I've had a lot more time with two-six speedlights than one-four 600-2400 W/s ProFoto monolights.

Heck, I even played with constant lighting today... and I can tell you that compared to flash, it is nothing to call home about, basically it confirmed what feelings I felt the first time I tried constant light... it's dangrously hot and it sucks. :lmao:

BTW, I was smiling when I walked into the studio... I was smiling when I walked out and so were all the participants.

fwellers · Feb 22, 2009

I wanna see a shot or two of 'gasm-girl'. :sexywink:

JerryPH · Feb 22, 2009

fwellers said:
I wanna see a shot or two of 'gasm-girl'.

LOL... pervie!
(edit: I want to clarify that we were both so comfortable with the flow that the words just came out. Nothing happened, I never got closer to her than you see in the pics and besides direction, nothing more was said after that comment and the few laughs afterward... besides the smiles we exchanged and me thanking her after I had the shots that I wanted).

... but thats not to say that there weren't other equally interesting ladies there!

This gal is cute as a doll, tatts on both arms, uber-tight corsette and all.

P.S. - None of these pics is in their final form. There is lots of cleaning up to do. I just wanted to show the pics requested.