Posing in Comfort~

My friends will be going for an audition by the end of this month.  They are auditioning for modelling casting somewhere in the capital city and they invited me to come along as a friend to help them (yeah of course not for me to audition hehe). 

For the past few weeks I've been helping them a little on photograph tips and we work together.  They need to prepare a portfolio for the audition.  Sometimes I help them take photos and as students we could only afford inexpensive basic digital camera (including phones) so we just play along with it~

While photo-shooting was taking place, as a cameraman, I need to ensure that they are comfortable with themselves and also to the cameraman.  Generally, they need to be comfortable at photo session so pretty photos can be captured.  From this, it helps me to identify what can make them comfortable during the session.  As a normal people with least expertise in this field, I did find something worth learning and practised.

• First thing first, get a little Q&A session with them.  But normally with friends, it comes naturally. They'll tell you what they want and sometimes they will ask you on what to do now, then you would just instruct them.  Then, I guess they need to be comfortable with they are wearing.  Maybe we can help them rearrange the attire and the acc. If their hijab is a little bit off, tell them or help them fix it instantly.
• Help them with the poses.  Some can do just fine and they are bold enough.  With beginners or anyone that asks for help, you can start by asking them to try few poses they've seen on magazines or blogs, etc.  Find their good angles and work with different perspectives.  Ex: Ask them to chin up, or maybe move a little bit to other side or even help them with footing! 
• Compliment.  When they did fine and nice poses, compliment that behaviour.  This will motivate them and put the stress away.  Let them be themselves and play along with them.  Ask them to just move and capture when nice poses are spotted.  
• Stay quiet.  Sometimes, I do this.  With camera in my hands and the subject in front of me, they'll eventually knows what to do.  I just smile (honest ones!) or nod when they did something worth captured.
• Candids.  For this, I guess we have to try keeping the camera in my hand so I wouldn't miss any shots.  Even though the session is resting but the camera should not.  Natural emotions normally would be captured.

Easy to work with her as she knows how to pose.  Photo by me & edited by her

Things I should consider in the future session~

• I should try directing them without asking them to pose too!  Maybe ask them to repeat what they were doing again and again.  The poses wouldn't always be the same but similar and that will help me getting a great shot and by this I believe they will be loosen up bit by bit.
• Give a demonstration.  I can show what pose I want and demo it instantly.  I can also show them photos of others and ask them to give it a try,
• Work with the best 3 eyelines.  Ask them to look at the light source, look down to your body and the third, to look at me.  <-- Reference: Christa Meola

Why Should you Keep a Photography Notebook?

I found a brilliant post entry while searching for some infos on photos in notebooks.  I came across with this wonderful site & I fell in love instantly.  I never knew a photographer actually keep a notebook with themselves all the time whenever & wherever <singing like Shakira> And here is a note on why we should keep a photography notebook especially if you proclaimed as one.  This is suitable to any of us that is starting out as a photographer.  I hope we can be successful in this field :D.

This is a reblog & taken from Bumbles and Light. Credit to the owner.

Before digital cameras, photographers would keep notebooks to help them remember the various settings that they used for each exposure on a roll of film. They could develop the film and then go back to compare their notes with the outcome, deciding which settings worked, which did not and how they could either emulate the results in another shoot or what they should change for next time. With digital photography, we only have to look at our exif data on the computer to reveal our settings for each photograph, so why should we still keep a photography notebook?

It is still important that we have somewhere to make notes and record reminders. I prefer using a paper notebook because that’s how I work best, I enjoy writing by hand and having something physical to refer to, but you could keep notes on your smartphone using an app or any other electronic device you choose… although I find it’s best to use something that you can carry with you at all times. The notebooks I like to use have plain paper as opposed to ruled lines. I prefer this so that I have space to make drawings and sketches of ideas if I need to and so that I have room to make notes on previous ideas. If you go for a paper notebook, choose something sturdy as you will be using it and carrying it around often.





Notebook. No photographer should be without one!

- Ansel Adams

Having a notebook also means that you have something to refer back to when feeling uninspired. Hopefully the wonderful ideas you recorded on previous days will serve to inspire you on days when you may be feeling less creative.

What to Write in your Photography Notebook

Anything you like.

Use your notebook to keep track of those elusive concept ideas that you come up with in the dead of night, just as you begin to fall asleep. Ideas seem to strike at the most inopportune of times, I’ll find myself scribbling in my notebook while I’m waiting outside my son’s school for him to finish for the day, as I’m out working/dog walking, or as I’m brewing the morning’s coffee.

You can use your notebook to make a note of awesome locations you might see when you’re out without your camera, or perhaps in a car or on public transport and unable to stop. Locations that might work better at a different time of day, or a different season. Make notes and come back to them.

You can keep magazine clippings in your notebook to inspire you. Posing ideas from fashion magazines, interesting compositions, lighting or just generally inspirational images. Attach them to your pages and write notes alongside them.

As you’re editing, if you find an image that didn’t quite work but you’d still like to try and re-take it you can make a note of it. The location, why you think it didn’t work out the first time, ideas to try next time.

Keep notes of things you learn while reading or watching instructional videos and might like to try out yourself. You could be learning to use artificial lighting for the first time, use your notebook to sketch out lighting setups or to write ideas.

 

Eventually, your photography notebook will become almost like a journal of your art and thought processes. These notebooks are good to hold onto, as you would a regular journal, to look back on. You might find yourself inspired years later by an idea you scribbled down hurriedly while standing in line to pay for your groceries.