Smile for the Camera

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0 height="100%"><tr> <td valign="top" width=200 BGCOLOR="#000000" TEXT="#F7F7FF"> <bR> <div> <IMG SRC="05496c80.jpg" border=0 width="150" height="200" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <div> <IMG SRC="05696c80.jpg" border=0 width="150" height="200" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <div> <IMG SRC="05896710.jpg" border=0 width="150" height="113" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <div> <IMG SRC="05a96c80.jpg" border=0 width="150" height="200" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> </td> <td valign="top" BGCOLOR="#000000" TEXT="#F7F7FF"> <div> <B>Photography by Carron</B><FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#FFFFFF" FACE="Arial" >     </FONT></div> <bR> <div> <B>Smile for the Camera</B></div> <div>  <A NAME="smile_for_the_camera"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A></div> <div> I don't know one of us that hasn't been in those horrible group pictures where everyone gets shoved together and forced to stand there while the photographer fiddles around with their camera only to hear these words.  "Okay, smile on three - ready?  One, two.......oh wait a minute....there's something....did the flash go?  I didn't see the flash go.... Bob, how do you do this again?  No, wait, everyone stay right there!"  By the time the picture is finally taken, it's worse than a line-up at a jail convention.</div> <bR> <div> People, in general, don't like having their picture taken.  They think they look bad, they're self-conscious about their looks, they feel silly.  Any number of things.  All of it makes them tense up and look horrible to the camera's eye.  So how to combat that?</div> <bR> <div> People usually have a reason for having their pictures taken.  They want family members to have them, they want to put them on their personal web site - there a million different reasons.  It's important for you to understand why they want the pictures and what they want to accomplish with them.  The first and best way I know is to sit down and really talk to the person you're going to be shooting.  Ask them questions about themselves.  If the pictures are work related, ask them what type of feeling do they want to convey - is it a business portrait, or something that can be a little more formal?  What part of their personality would they like to bring out?  Do they know, or have an idea of, what they'd like the final result to look like?  Something with dark tones that speaks "corporate," or something a little more laid-back and casual.  Whatever they tell you they want to convey, *you* show up at the shoot looking the part.  If they want the pictures to be very 'corporate board room' then show up in your best business suit with your hair tamed and your shirt pressed.  If it's more of a casual setting, you dress to meet the mood they're hoping to achieve.  This will immediately let them know you are mindful of what they are hoping to see in their final pictures.</div> <bR> <div> As you're talking to your prospective new client, watch them.  Watch how they sit, take note of their body language, look for the natural poses they do as they are being relaxed and moving.  When it comes time to shoot, have some of these natural poses in mind.  Asking the person sitting for you to take up a pose that is natural to them helps give them a sense of self-confidence in themselves that comes from just being able to be *themselves."</div> <bR> <div> Posing a model is, sometimes by necessity, uncomfortable, but you can minimize this by joking around a little bit, calling a portrait sitting "contortion 101".  I tend to find it's the subtle posing - a tilt of the head or the positioning of the hand - that will make people freeze up or become stiff as a board.  They become afraid to move and ruin the pose you walked over and put them in.  An easy way to alleviate this is to stand back at your camera (which should be on a tripod) and mirror the actions you want them to do.  When shooting people, remember that your left becomes right, and your right becomes left.  If you want someone to tilt their head to their left a little bit, *you* tilt *your* head to your RIGHT a little bit.  Your subject will mirror what you do.  If you want them to lower their chin, put the tip of *your* forefinger on *your* chin and bring it down the same amount you want them to lower theirs.  Parroting is an automatic response in humans and they will do as you visually instruct.</div> <bR> <div> As to smiles, the big cheesy grins are not generally the pictures that sell the best or make the biggest impression.  It's the soft, quiet secret smile, or the steady gaze, or the half smirk.  If you'll notice on the side of this page, there are four photographs of a friend of mine who allowed me to shoot him.  When we started, he was feeling pretty silly, looking off into space at...well....nothing, basically.  But once we got going and (through the convenience of digital photography) he saw what I was trying to do with lighting and posing, he completely lost his awareness of self (the bad kind) and gained an awareness of where his arms should be placed, how he should put his feet and drop his weight back onto his back foot, etc., etc.  By the time we were shooting the final pictures, he was laughing and having a great time (again, see pictures) and was working with me in each set of photographs to convey a certain mood and emotion.  Was I successful?  Well, when his mom saw them she cried, so I'm going to take that as a good sign, and he's gotten nothing but compliments on the photos - which makes him more than willing to sit for me again.</div> <bR> <div> It's the little things that you do when you're taking pictures of people that will pull off the *big pic* which, for professionals, results in the bigger sale, and for people who just want to get better at taking pictures, ends up with those pictures of family and friends where everyone wants a copy because "that looks *just* like them!"  Don't we all want to have a great memory of when we took that picture?</div> <bR> <bR> <div> On to the<FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#FFFFFF" FACE="Bradley Hand ITC" > </FONT><FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#FFCC66" FACE="Bradley Hand ITC" ><A HREF="http://www.photographybycarron.com/gallery" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.photographybycarron.com/galle"><U>Portfolio</U></A></FONT></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id17_tutorial_list.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Tutorials"><U>Read Some Tutorials</U></A></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="mailto:carron@photographybycarron.com" TARGET="_top" TITLE="mailto:carron@photographybycarron.com"><U>Contact me</U></A></div> </td> </tr></table></body>