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The Starving Artist

~ Still an artist but no longer starving!

The Starving Artist

Tag Archives: Model

5 Top Tips for a stress free photoshoot

09 Sunday Jun 2013

Posted by Colin Crowdey in Business, Photography, Portraits

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Tags

Arts and Entertainment, business, cars, fashion photographers, Fashion photography, gorgeous smile, Make Up Artist, Model, photo shoot, Photographer, photography

It can be a very rewarding experience working with models, both for the photographer and the model. But when things go wrong all too often I hear models complaining about their photographer or photographers complaining about their model and worse still photographers and models making these complaints in online forums or on Facebook which sometimes attract many thousands of views – sadly neither put the model or the photographer in good light.

All too often these complaints are borne out of frustration that the shoot didn’t go as planned, or that the model or the photographer didn’t get the pictures they wanted.

Its an old adage I know, but one which is very apt for those in the photographic industry, “if you fail to plan, you plan to fail”.

Here are my 5 steps for ensuring that your next photo shoot goes without a hitch and model and photographer come away happy

1) Plan, Plan, Plan – I cannot stress how important it is for the photographer to plan their shoot – now I’m not suggesting planning with military precision down to the minutest detail – although if that’s how you work that’s fine – just ensure you have a photographic concept in mind, the right model, the right location, the right clothes and or props, a hairstylist and or Make Up artist, an assistant and everyone knows how to get to the location and at what time. Even in the Summer months make sure you have a warm coat and umbrella in the car – your freezing cold swim ware model will thank you for it

2) Communicate – I see so many photographers who sit behind the lens of a camera and click away without saying a word. Communicate with your model, they are not mind readers, they don’t know what you want unless you tell them. If you want the model to put her hand on her hip a bit higher than she has, tell her! All people need words of encouragement, tell the model her smile is gorgeous and she will smile a gorgeous smile – listen to some of the pro fashion photographers – they spend the entire shoot directing, cajoling and complimenting their models. The same communication needs to be for any stylists and MUA’s too – they don’t know EXACTLY what you want unless you tell them.

3) Always have a Plan B – Sometimes the best laid plans fall apart – always have a plan B, even if that Plan B is “we can’t continue – lets all reschedule”

4) Take regular breaks – It’s tough being a photographer – it’s equally tough being a model – you try standing on the beach in sub zero temperatures for hours on end! Always plan to have regular breaks for a drink, comfort breaks or just to look at what you have done so far – you will get more out of the model and consequently out of your shoot if you take regular breaks

5) Know when to stop – Its easy to keep clicking away – especially with modern DSLR’s of today – but if you have followed the four previous steps you will probably have “got the shot” by now – so stop – thank the model and the rest of your creative team and go home happy

Best

Colin

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Thinking outside the box

22 Monday Oct 2012

Posted by Colin Crowdey in Bridal Photography, General

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

bridal, Gothic, graffiti, Model, photo shoot, photography, Rock Chick, rock n roll bride, wedding dress

Hello

The photography business is a great business to be in, going to exotic locations, driving fast cars, shooting beautiful models every day…………

Right, sorry, I was just day dreaming a bit there.

It’s actually pretty mundane unless you regularly shoot covers for Vogue, then its pretty exciting, but for us lesser photographers it’s usually 10% photography, and then 90% work (marketing, sales, networking etc) trying to generate that 10% photography.

But occasionally a job comes along that gets the old grey matter thinking and does make it all worth while. Back in the Summer I was contacted by a local model from Model Mayhem (a photographer, model, MUA, networking site) who explained to me she was in a band and wanted to branch out on her own in a different direction and so wanted some promo shots.

Nice and easy this one, her modelling profile shouted “Goth” and her normal everyday look was “Goth”, so I straight away was thinking red candles, dark stone walls, maybe some roses strewn across the floor and for good measure a bit of smoke too – job done.

Or so I thought.

This model really wanted something completely different from her normal Gothic look, something pretty unique to me, she said. Can I leave it with you? Was her parting comment!

So how do you shoot some different unique images of someone who lives eats and breathes a particular look – simple – you stick them in a wedding dress!

When I came up with this idea I needed a reasonably unique setting to put her in, after all, I couldn’t just put her in a wedding dress and stick a guitar in her hand and expect a picture now could I?

So after a bit of searching I found a terrific piece of graffiti, that fitted quite well with the look I was trying to create – a beautiful girl with angels wings, holding a spray can – a bit of an angelic rebellious message there.

Anyway, the model loved the idea and the shoot went really well. My favourite image of the shoot is on here below – I think it turned out rather well, and the model was over the moon too

Best – Colin

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Sometimes you just gotta break the rules

15 Monday Oct 2012

Posted by Colin Crowdey in Bridal Photography, General, Photography

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Tags

bridal, lens flare, Model, photo shoot, photography, rules, wedding dress

Afternoon

Having a thorough technical understanding of photography is a good foundation for working in the business, F-stops, apertures, ISO, Guide Numbers, it might sound like gobbledegook but unless you know that stuff you’ll never really take your photography to the next level.

There is a lot on the web about how the technical aspects of photography must be followed to get a good shot, and to some extent that is true, but there comes a point when you just have to say, stop, hang on a minute, that photo is “technically perfect” correctly exposed, sharp, rule of thirds etc, but…there is something missing.

That “something missing” bit is the most important ingredient for making a good photograph into a great photograph, the creative input of the photographer, the thinking outside the box, breaking all the rules

I was on a shoot recently photographing models in wedding gowns, for a wedding gown  supplier, pretty boring, but steady work. Towards the end of the shoot one of the models walked across a window and I noticed the sun streaming behind her, so I thought, lets see what that looks like.

The model was happy to “do her thing” in front of the window while I shot without my lens hood on (to accentuate the flare) and shot from a lower viewpoint to get the sun directly in the frame (whilst minding sure my eyeballs were not scorched to a cinder!!)

The purists amongst you will say the resulting image is a little soft, lacks a bit of contrast, has waaaay too much flare – and you’re right – but it’s a pretty darn good image, I love it, the model adores it and the client even asked for a copy!

Obviously I wouldn’t shoot ALL my work like this, but every now and then you just gotta break the rules.

best – Colin

 

 

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Nothing ventured, nothing gained

12 Friday Oct 2012

Posted by Colin Crowdey in General

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Hawker Hunter, Military, Model, photography, RAF, Uniform

hello

I’m always on the look out for props or things that can provide inspiration for my portrait photography business. It’s little (or big!) things like props that can really set apart one shot from another.

A few miles from my home is parked an old Hawker Hunter, bright red, you can just see it from the road and I have always thought how cool it would be to shoot, but never bothered to investigate further as permission would either be at very great cost, or there would be no permission at all.

Anyway, a few weeks ago I was approached by Holly, a model who had seen some of my work and wanted to collaborate. She had access to an old RAF uniform and wanted me to shoot her in it. After some thought I agreed and set about planning the shoot.

It was soon quite obvious that a pretty girl in a RAF uniform needed that extra “something” to lift the picture from the norm. I then remembered the red Hawker Hunter and thought, nothing ventured nothing gained!

I took a drive over to the plane location and drove up to it and lo and behold it was actually parked on the site of MOT garage along with portacabin coffee shops (the sort you see in “A road” lay byes). Ordering a coffee form the portacabin I asked if they knew who owned the airplane and we got talking and it transpired that the owner owned the MOT garage and was more than happy to allow snaps to be taken. (snaps??? – I smiled to myself)

Drinking up I wandered over to the garage and asked to see Bob (not his real name) and I was introduced to a chain smoking long haired hells angel biker type character (no offence to Hells Angels meant!!). This is not going to end well I thought, but I plucked up courage, introduced myself and started talking about my photography and how cool it would be to shoot his plane!

To my amazement this guy was a real character and spent the next hour telling me stories about his red plane and his other “pieces of military hardware” he has owned. He was delighted that I wanted to shoot a model “on the plane” and we left with him saying, “come along anytime you like, we’ll even wash it for you”

Getting back home and still filled with excitement (I’d never shot a model on a real plane before!!) I rang Holly the model and told her, over the moon was an understatement.

I got my team together, assistant and MUA (Make up artist) and we arranged a date to shoot.

On the day it was dull and grey with heavy rain forecast – but that didn’t deter us. Holly looked amazing in her RAF outfit, but with stockings and stilettos to put a different slant on it.

It did rain eventually and we had to call it a day – but not before we got some cracking shots

The moral of this story, and the reason for the post, is you never ever know what the answer will be until you just ask – so don’t be afraid to ask the question, the worst that can happen is they say no – and you expected that anyway!

Best – Colin

 


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