Pixiq

When I was learning the professional photography business, I asked my mentor what’s “the worst mistake I could make” when photographing a wedding and his answer surprised me. “The worst thing you can do,” he told me, was “not talk to the people.” I’ll pass his words of wisdom along to you so you’ll know that when it comes to photographing people it’s not just about the equipment, it is mostly about interaction with your subjects.

So many times I see photographers shooting models and expecting the models to do all the work. That may be true for experienced model but not be possible with new models or portrait subject. That’s because there are two basic types of photo subjects:

Inner directed people are the Energizer bunnies of photo subjects—you tell them to stand “over there,” point the camera at them, and they will change poses as fast as you can click the shutter. You will get lots of good poses, some great ones, and a few that are not so good because the model is not getting any feedback, except from themselves. The other downside is that you will also shoot more photos, which in turn takes more editing time and will require bigger memory cards. These experienced models make you look like a better photographer than you are but it’s still you’re job to get the lighting right. Unfortunately, this type of subject represents 20% of the models or subjects that the average shooter ever gets to photograph.

www.lightwaredirect.com) 30-inch FourSquare lightbanks each with a single Nikon speedlight mounted inside one. A reflector was placed at camera left. Backdrop was a “Joe Farace” muslin background that’s available from Silverlake Photo (www.silverlakephoto.com.)" height="700" width="467" />

Outer directed subjects represent the other 80% of photo subjects or models and they expect you to tell them what to do. Shooting this type of subject takes longer (and smaller memory cards) but if you take the time to communicate what you want the subject to do. The best ones will respond better if you show them what the photograph looks like on the LCD screen—big screens really help with this. The bottom line is that it’s up to you to tell them how to pose and in order to do that, you need to know what you want. Lighting for above photo was from two Nikon speedlights; one inside each FourSquare lightbank.

For tips on a daily basis follow Joe on Twitter at www.twitter.com/joefarace. And his How to blog, www.joefaraceblogs.com, has tips on portraits and glamour every Friday.