Seamless Beauty (Part Three)

Alrighty then! You've set and metered your lights, you've made the model comfortable, you've gained some trust by building rapport and you're about to start shooting.

More often than not, the first bunch of images you capture are not going to be keepers. It's going to take a little while for both you and the model to slip into a groove, to synergize! You might even need to do a little Vulcan mind-melding with her. (From a distance! No finger probes on her face! You'll mess up her makeup.) So here's the thing: The model needs to understand your direction, capiche? Speak clearly and/or use easily and quickly understood sign language. If you're shooting, like I often do, with loud music blaring, make sure she can hear you! Again, as before, keep communicating with your model. That should always be going on. And speak in plain English or whatever language you speak: No photo-techno babble! At this point, much of the communication is going to be one-way and coming, one-way, from you. You speak, you direct, she listens and implements your directions. (At least, theoretically, that's how its supposed to work.) If you're prone to speaking to yourself OUT LOUD, like I often am, make sure your model understands the difference between you speaking to yourself and you speaking to her. Confusion is not a big plus when shooting this stuff.

I find it's often helpful for the model to comprehend a little bit about what you're trying to do with the lighting. You don't need to turn the sitting into a lighting lecture but if she understands something about what the lights are doing, how they're playing on her body, she'll start working those lights or, at least, understand why you're moving her head and twisting her body this way and that.

POSING

Posing can be hard work. Sometimes, the best poses hurt... physically hurt! There's "S" curves and there's really forceful "S" curves. There's pushing that butt out and there's really arching that back and pushing that butt out! But hey! No pain no gain, right? But it's nice to acknowledge what the model's experiencing and going through to give you that killer pose. Empathy is another way to build rapport and gain trust. So bend them and twist them, make them stretch those muscles till they scream! (Her muscles, not the model herself.) But let your model know that YOU KNOW it might not feel so good and that you appreciate her hard work and effort. Here's one of the worst things you can say: "Don't worry, sweetie. All you need to do is stand there, do what I say, and look pretty." Acknowledge what they're contributing to the process and what they might be feeling. If not for them, you'd just be shooting a blank piece of paper.

CHIMPING

You're going to chimp. Everyone does. Chimping is okay. But don't be a stingy chimper. Let the model chimp some of the images as well. You're still building her confidence in your abilities, get it? Chimping together is also a good way to point-out and help her understand what the lights are doing. I'm not saying it's a two-party chimpfest throughout the entire shoot but, at its onset and once you're happy with the lighting, those special and tender moments when you chimp together can be helpful to both parties. If you have an MUA on the set, let the MUA chimp some pics as well. MUAs need their egos stroked as well. Besides, often-times the MUA contributes more to your images than you do. And don't become an abusive, habitual, addicted, chimper! You don't need to chimp every single image. When you were still shooting film, you couldn't chimp, short of a few polaroids, so don't be a chimping maniac throughout the shoot. You're not THAT insecure in your abilities, are you?

Experienced models will start going through their personal catalogue of poses. It's easy to just let this happen. And if you do, it doesn't mean you stop communicating even if your communication is more in the form of positive reinforcement and sounds rote and repetitive. Plus, experienced or not, don't let the model dictate the content of the shoot! Sure, if she gets into a rhythm you don't want to squash that. But you're the shooter and, as such, you're the boss, albeit a benign boss. Once again, always keep in mind the model is alone on that seamless with lights in her eyes. She wants to know there's someone on the other side of those lights who is delighted in what she's doing. So tell her!

If the model still seems to be having a hard time relaxing in front of the camera, that is, she seems stiff and a little too posey and her expressions are barely changing, you need to keep working at getting her to relax. Again, people skills! If the series is going to include some nudity, perhaps full nudity, you might start out with the model clothed or semi-clothed or covered in some way even though it's not the goal of the photo-set. I don't care how experienced or how much of an exhibitionist the model is, even if she's the world's most uninhibited porn star, she'll relax a little quicker starting out with some of her feminine assets covered. Women are wired that way. Getting to the nudity part should be a process where you have the model begin teasing the camera with hints and peeks of what's to come until, finally, it's all there. If you handle this well, by the time she's naked (assuming the goal is her becoming naked) she'll be as comfy as a nudist at a nudist camp. Besides, those images of "hints and peeks of what's to come," even though your model agreed to pose fully nude, might end up being the best images from the set!

If you're shooting glamour, clothed or unclothed, you need the model to sell the goods, to promote her assets, to believe and appear as if she's the center of the known sexual universe. Personally, I recommend avoiding cliche poses (finger in the mouth and all that stuff) but the posing should be inviting, make that sexually inviting, albeit it doesn't need to be over the top. Glamour is about sex appeal. I know everyone doesn't agree with that statement and I respect the opinions of others even when they're wrong but that's what it's all about. We are sexual beings whether some of us like to admit it or not. Sex sells! So encourage your model to sell herself with her sex appeal. I'm talking about a hard-core sell! (Not hard-core images but a hard-core sell.) And don't get that last statement mixed up and twisted-- sometimes less is more if you know what I mean. The hardest hard-core sell can be in the form of the subtlest expressions and body-poses.

Not only should the model be the focus of all your attention but, since it's simply a model on a blank piece of paper, she will also be the focus of your viewers' attentions. As a photographer, your goal should be converting viewers into admirers. Your incredible photography and post-processing skills aside, your models can do more towards making admirers out of your viewers than almost anything else. BTW, since I'm writing about glamour (as opposed to, as an example, Fine Art Nudes), you should be lighting your model accordingly. That means your lighting should be designed to enhance her assets and sex appeal while, at the same time, making the image interesting and exciting. Fortunately, you can accomplish both of these with the same lights by highlighting her curves and assets and allowing shadow to play on other areas of her body. (You know, that chiaroscuro thing.) For me, flatly-lit models, i.e. flat-across lit models, even with highlights accenting their curves, doesn't work as well and doesn't have as much impact.

Someone commented on some images, i.e., semi-nude images, of a young lady I recently posted on a photographer's forum. He said I wasn't providing enough highlights to the model's eyes. He quoted that old saying about the eyes being windows to the soul. In the images I posted, there ARE catchlights in her eyes. And I agree with that thing about eyes being windows and all, but I have to say that, when I shoot nude or semi-nude glamour, I'm not so sure my viewers's eyes are going straight to the model's eyes. Portraits are another story and, with portraits, the eyes certainly are a big deal. And they're still a big deal when shooting nude and/or semi-nude glamour. But if I have to choose between highlighting eyes and highlighting curves and assets, I'm going for the goodies!

Okay. I'm done with this Seamless Beauty subject. I hope some of it meant something or will help out someone out there. I provided more images of models with this final installment of my SB trilogy then I did in the first two installments. The models shown above are, from top to bottom, Aneesha, Aveena, Cytherea, and Jessi.