First client...need advice.

[Sideburns]

Hey guys. I was talking to this girl who added me on Facebook, and when I told her I was leaving to pick up my new L, she inquired about a photoshoot. I told her that I would LOVE to do it, and that I would do it for free as long as she didn't have huge expectations.

She wants to to a SuicideGirls type of shoot...I dono if any of you are familiar with them, but basically they're punky style poster girls...

Anyways, I was wondering what techniques I should be using, to capture "sexiness". I always seem to be having a problem with not enough light...so using low light isn't an option, unless you have some suggestions to use...

We will be doing the shoot outside, so there should be plenty of sunlight. I'm thinking we need to find a big wall with graffiti...or even do it in a railyard....either that or we could go to the skate park...

One thing I'm not really that good at is posing. Like, I know what SHOULD look good..but whenever I get them to do it, it's not how I thought of it and I can't seem to figure out how the pros do it to make it look sexy. Any tips of making this SEXY would be marvelous. That's basically the main purpose of this is to make her look as appealing as possible. I'm not sure yet on her outfit, but I'm going to try and get her to have at least a few options, so I can dress her for the scene.

ANY advice you can give me would be great.

Oh, and PS - I'll be shooting mostly with my 70-200, with a few with the 50 in for good measure after all of the big shots are done just so I can get a bit of a different perspective. I really want to get the contrast and colours to stand out in this shoot. Always been a quality of SuicideGirls.

Thanks everyone, and sorry for the long post

 

[Big Mike]

I think your idea of finding some graffiti, train yard or skate park is a good idea. That should work well.

Shooting outdoors can give you plenty of light but be careful of shooting in full sun, especially if you don't have a powerful flash for fill light.

As for poses, that can be daunting...but don't over think it. There is really no such thing as an original pose, so just use something as a guide. Find as many photos of Suicide Girls as you can, and print them out/rip them out of a magazine. Take these with you to the shoot and have her copy the poses that she/you like. It's a great way to learn what works and what doesn't.

Another thing to be aware of, is that a lot of the photos that she might be thinking of...may be been lit with studio lighting or some sort of off camera lighting...which may be hard to duplicate with just natural outdoor lighting...so you may need to get creative.

 

[Alex_B]

what about some ruined industrial building. find a room not too cluttered, but it should be grey-ish or with some rusted metal colours, that would make her stand out a lot. just an idea.

ideally if you found such a place wit a large (broken) window towards the sun side of the building.

 

[Mike_E]

Shade, shoot in RAW, reflectors to fill in the shadows and the general stuff you most likely know for the lighting.

As to the other, this is where knowing your camera comes in. Don't shoot with your camera! (yes do shoot with your camera just don't think about it.) What you want is a running dialog with the model. Have her move in ways that move you and Keep talking to her so that she stays in motion (little stops for the shot but more hesitations really- think of dancing together) and when she moves you to -action- (notice I kept it clean?) take the shot.

 

[MACollum]

One thing I'm not really that good at is posing. Like, I know what SHOULD look good..but whenever I get them to do it, it's not how I thought of it and I can't seem to figure out how the pros do it to make it look sexy.

Probably the reason that the pros can make the pictures look sexy is because they're using models who presumably have experience with posing in natural-looking ways. Stiff, unnatural posing isn't sexy. The key here is to get her to relax so that the poses are natural. Talk to her a lot so she relaxes and acts more natural and gets used to the camera. If she's relaxed and acting naturally, her sexiness will come out by itself.

Maybe you could position her next to a gritty-looking building with the sun lighting her from the side. That would create shadows that would look edgy, if that's the look you're going for.

 

[Sideburns]

wow. Lots of stuff I didn't think of...might be hard to find old industrial buildings considering the value of land here...lol. But, I can keep an eye out...plus my dad's a cop so I'm sure he knows something...

Ya, I won't be bringing any lighting equipment with me...this is gonna be a very lightweight shoot...as we might be moving to a few different venues/around the same one a lot.

I guess the biggest thing will be keeping her busy and talking to her. I am thinking that if I take pictures when she doesn't even know it she won't be as stiff...and I will have to talk with her before hand to not look like she's posing...just "act like there's no camera" or something.

I usually try to keep the camera up at all times during shoots I've done for fun with my girlfriend or some of my friends. This way, they don't know when I'm taking pictures, and I can take pictures when they're not even doing anything. A lot of times they turn out better than when they're trying.

Any more advice would be great! This is all good so far...helps a lot to have guys who have done this explain some tips.

 

[Sideburns]

Ok well, I should be talking to this girl this week about locations and things...

Any more advice from you guys?

 

[DSLR noob]

At least buy 2 white poster boards and some 2 by 4s to make a small frame you can staple the paper to to make into makeshift reflectors. I did an outdoor photoshoot of my girlfriend and someone here commented that if I had a reflector bouncing light up, I could delete the "racoon effect" created by shadowing of the brow line.

Tell her to bring a few complete punky changes of outfits and maybe a few accesories (spiked collars etc.)

Shoot in RAW.

Try and use a workflow to make bright saturated colors os any grafitti or punky shirts stand out bright against dull and cracked concrete. Most punk style shots look best with a rebelious wild teen wearing black with splashes of color against a dull grungy background. Make use of overlaid filter layers and dodge/burn tools for HDR-like effects.

Good luck and have fun. Post up a pic from the shoot here when all is said and done(get her permission of course). I'm interested to see how this comes out.

 

[Hollywood_joeyd]

My suggestion is to use a little bit of a wider lens. With a 70-200 you'll need to be pretty far away from the subject unless you simply want a headshot, (which sounds like this isn't what you want.) I would use something like a 20-35mm and shoot close up. This will bring you closer to the subject physically, which will make the shoot more intimate, and you'll get better coverage. Also, you may want to use shallow depth of field (like f4, f5.6) so the background doesn't become too intrusive...especially if the subject is busy and the background is busy. My other suggestion is to shoot early or shoot late. Right now 6:30pm is the prime time to shoot if you aren't using fill flash or fill cards. Sun will be at your back. Good luck with the shoot