Planning the good shot
From my experience creating good stock images is a fine balance between the creative control of the photographer and/or the art director and the creative impulse of the talent. As photogs we always need to know where we are going, what we want next. Otherwise you will be wasting sooo much time standing there trying to come up with the next shot. Here I am refering to the wonders of shootplanning, the secret to calmness and mental tranquility for any succesful photog. In case you are wondering shootplanning means to sit down in a quiet place thinking hard about the storyline for the day – you do your research and creative gymnastics and come up with “A PLAN”. Failing to plan is planning to fail, remember that!

In charge
It is a good idea to remember that the model is there for YOU, just waiting for your directions. We really have to be in charge. Remember that the model does not know what you see through the lens, and more often than not I find the models amazed at what was just captured when I show them the back of the camera.

Instructing the models
I mentioned a balance between the creative control of the photog and the creative impulse of the talent. From my experience with more than 50 stock shoots what I often do is that I instruct the models about the situation they are playing out. And then I ask them to sit there for a minute thinking about how that would be in real life, discuss it with them, and then I “let go”. I instruct the models to joke around with the situation to “play it out”. I get them to play with the words that would have been said in a real life situation. For instance the lady in the picture was joking about firing all the employees and withdrawing all their earnings. You don’t know that when you see the picture, but you do get a feeling of genuine emotion. You sort of let them go their own way hopefully almost forgetting that you are there pointing a huge piece of molded glass towards them, and in return you get to capture real people interaction with other real people. Not nervous wrecks sitting there trying to squeeze out a frozen smile while you stand there with a pool of sweat by you feet shouting “smile, smile … I need happy businesspeople”.

Play it out – but still in control
It is important that you remember to get the models to freeze so that you can record a tack sharp frame. Without the sharpness you might as well take a nap instead. That would be more productive. I ask the models to fluctuate between genuine interaction and “locking the frame”. Say I ask them to “explain something to the others”. The star of the picture might say “Now dear colleagues I am going to give you a huge raise and a Mercedes Benz as bonus for all the hard work”, and then when the emotions come (the others smile or laugh) my models always know they have to freeze for at least 2 clicks on the camera. There is a fine balance here. And you will need a lot of practice before this becomes effortless. And of course you models also need to be serious about the situation.

How do you deal with your models? Experiences, comments, tips, tricks?

Regards,
laflor