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