Reply To: I am terrified of you people! Here goes nothing.

[IHF]

David,

I love your post!  Got a lot from it.  I have to add to your last tip though.  Squinting because your subject is trying to protect their retinas doesn’t equal confidence, just bad lighting lol

 

One “trick”  I learned early on, was to always say the subject looks fantastic, and they are doing great, even when they are self sabotaging their photo and it’s not going well.  By doing this it builds a confidence that wasn’t there to start with, and they open up.  lol  I have to laugh.  My daughter is my most used model for my experiments in portraiture, and our first sessions were beyond horrible, and hilarious.  We didn’t work well at ALL together, and we’d end up grumpy each and every time.  She learned to run away when I got the camera out, and to say “NO!” if I asked.  So I got online and studied posing and direction for a few weeks.  I then had to promise her that it wouldn’t go like it had in the past, and if it did I would never ask her again, wait a few days for her to feel pretty, and BLAMMO!  Now she asks ME for photo shoots…and it all started with a lie “You’re doing so good.  That’s perfect!  BEAUTIFUL!  Now try this”  lmbo  I love it!  who would have thought?  (God!  I hope she doesn’t ever read this)