Point Your Belly Button Over There!

People ask me about direction and communicating with models. You know, what kind of directions I give models and what words do I use when photographing them.

It's one thing to learn, master, or mimic lighting setups but, when it comes to communicating with models, you're usually on your own.

Wanna know what the kiss of death is when you're shooting some hot chick and you hope to get some hot snaps? Keeping your yap shut when she's out there, alone, in the lights.

I've said it before. It's lonely out there in the lights. When I'm shooting, it's (often enough) just me and model. If I shoot with my mouth shut it will seem (to the model) like it's just her... and just her... on the set or at the location or wherever it is we're shooting.

I try to avoid chanting those stereotypical photographer litanies. You've heard them before: "That's it! Beautiful! Sexy! Yeah! Great! Hot! Oh, baby! Sell it! You're killin' me!" I'll admit to occasionally falling into the trap of sounding that way. But that's mostly when there's no music providing "mood" for the shoot and I'm just trying to fill dead air when I'm not issuing specific directions.

Here's what most models want to hear, certainly what experienced models want to hear: They want to hear direction. They want to hear they look great, i.e., they like ego strokes. They want to hear things that tell them you're paying attention to the important shit and that you're not gawking... even if that important shit happens to be, at the moment, her tits.

Models want to hear things that say you're paying attention to detail--close attention to detail--as well as words that tell her you're on top of what your camera is capturing, i.e., you're on your game. Models want to hear things that might not always sound so polite or kind or genteel or PC... they want to hear honest stuff! Maybe not painfully honest but honesty that assures them you're doing your best to capture them at their best. You know, stuff like "Suck it in," referring to their tummies and even when those tummies are lean-n-mean.

Models don't want to hear these things in mean ways. They don't want to hear them in insincere ways. And most models definitely don't want to hear the words coming out of your mouth in ways that sound phony or faux-friendly or condescending or pervy. You don't need to become great friends with the model. You need to simply and quickly build a rapport--a friendly, temporary, almost intimate rapport-- but only for that sometimes-brief or sometimes-lengthy time you're shooting together.

Models want to believe you know what you're doing and that the images that result from the photographic intersection of you, the photographer, and she, the model, are going to be awesome!

Above all else and assuming you have the basics under control, this is the stuff that will make your pretty girl pics come alive.

The pretty girl at the top is Penthouse Pet (July, 2008) and Penthouse Pet of the Year (Runner-Up) Shawna Lenee.

And you know what? A lot of this same stuff even works when you're shooting -- Gasp! -- dudes!

Sorry. But I don't remember the dude's name. (Yeah, like you're all upset with that.) And sorry... for posting a dude's pic. Was just making a point, small as that point might be.